The embryo, says Dr Zavos, is
currently frozen and being held in a secret location. He
said he has already tried to perform the controversial
procedure-once this year but the surrogate mother
developed complications in July and the attempt was
aborted.
He has been perfecting his
cloning technique by creating hybrid embryos, which are
theoretically viable, made by fusing human cells with
empty cow eggs. He claims to have created more than 200
of these while "practising" for a human clone.
"The aim of creating these
hybrids is simply to perfect the techniques for cloning
humans, we are not trying to create monsters. We've
created the first human embryo for reproductive
purposes," said Dr Zavos, director of the Andrology
Institute of America-and associate director of the
Kentucky Center for Reproductive Medicine and IVF.
Dr Zavos has pledged to reveal
both mother and baby once the birth has taken place.
"I'm a great believer in showing
proof, but we will do it in such a way that they can
live a normal life. It's very important they have a
private life," he said in a video interview on his
website.
Professor Richard Gardner of
Oxford University, who is also chairman of the Royal
Society working group on stem cells and cloning, claims
the likelihood of the experiment ending happily is
"small".
He said: "We know from looking
at cloning attempts in other mammals that the success
rate is often under one per cent, and in humans that is
probably less." However, a spokesman for the Royal
Society, which opposes reproductive cloning, conceded
"Dr Zavos is a good researcher".
Dr Jackie O'Connell of Cambridge
University also expressed doubts over the research and
its chances of success, if true. "The major problem with
cloning is that many embryos survive to the blastocyst
stage, of 128 cells, but then there's a massive rate of
attrition. Most implanted cloned embryos never reach
maturity," she said.
The experiment is being carried
out in a secret location outside the US and Europe,
which outlaw human cloning for reproduction. There is
speculation Dr Zavos may be doing the work in the Middle
East or even China.
