Advanced Cell technologies- first to clone human embryo

Today is the only day of the year that I watch an AFL game. I'm sitting in front of the TV whilst blogging, as I am not keen enough to admit I enjoy watching football!!!! 

Over the last couple of weeks I have been looking at the scientists who have made human cloning claims. The delineation between reproductive cloning and  therapeutic cloning s a very weak one. For those who believe in pro life argument, therapeutic cloning is just as unacceptable as reproductive cloning. In fact the Raelians actually saw no distinction between reproductive and therapeutic cloning. For me the real distinction between reproductive and therapeutic cloning is whether that embryo is implanted into a womb. Its this distinction that the scientific community will accept in the debate on cloning. Those scientists who are pursuing the end of implantation and establishment of a pregnancy have been shunned by the scientific community (and the public).

Source: xconomy

Advanced Cell Technologies is one company who has walked the line in terms of the cloning of embryos. In 2001, the company were the first to clone embryos to be used for therapeutic purposes. Like Woo Suk Hwang, Advanced Cell Technologies never planned to implant an human embryo, and maintained credibility in the scientific community by providing robust evidence and being open about their intentions.

After the company managed to clone human embryos for therapeutic purposes they expanded their business to another field. They started to clone animals. Of particular interest was the cloning of extinct and endangered animals to make a real life "Jurassic Park". For me this is a fascinating part of the human cloning controversy. They directly avoulded the human cloning issue, similar to what Ian Wilmut had done with Dolly, by cloning animals. I'm not sure where their intentions lie..... But the poster boy for this company was a man called Robert Lanza, who took science publicity to a new level, and since 2001 has been lobbying for stem cell research. I'm going to talk about him next time.