As I have said before, because of the expense and the shortage of human eggs for cloning, researchers will push for the use of egg from animals like cows or rabbits. Here is an article from the BBC that proposes using rabbbit eggs for cloning instead of human eggs. Read this:
A Chinese team has already claimed to have created human embryonic stem cells using rabbit eggs which had had their genetic material removed.UK experts said the option had to be considered because there were too few human eggs for research.
Comment on Reproductive Ethics impresses once again:
But Josephine Quintavalle, of the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: "The question is 'what would be created?'"I think it is right to feel uncomfortable about creating some type of hybrid.
"And I have suspicions of how useful it would really be for research."
The governing UK body, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, looked into using rabbit eggs for cloning and concluded:
the resulting embryo would be almost indistinguishable from a human embryo.Well, that is reassuring....
Making human embryonic stem cells using rabbit or other mammal eggs may cause other problems. The March 2005 issue of Reproduction reported on Chinese goldfish cloning experiments. Scientists at the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Wuhan, China working with carp and goldfish clones have found that the mitochondrial DNA in the wild type carp eggs used for goldfish clones affected the number of vertebrae in the goldfish clones. Common carp have 33 to 36 vertebrae in their backbones, while goldfish have 26 to 28. Six of the seven cloned fish had between 26 and 28 vertebrae; one had 31.
Thus the donor egg is affecting structural development, not just the genetic material in the nucleus. While this happened in only 7 of 500 clones, it still makes clear that there is a clear contribution from the DNA in the cytoplasm, making this an unacceptable way of cloning human embryos.
Jaydee Hanson, International Center for Technology Assessment, Washington, DC
Jaydee,
Thank-you for your comment. I was unaware of those findings. I agree that using animal eggs for cloning is unacceptable.