Chinese Scientists Say They're Ready to Clone Humans - 'The Technology Is Already There' Jon Levine - Tech.Mic
go to original December 4, 2015

Send in the clones (Mic/Getty Images)

That's exactly what one Chinese bioengineering company has in mind. The world's largest cloning outfit, Boyalife Group in Tianjin, insists they are up to the challenge of producing human clones right now.

Boyalife CEO Xu Xiaochun says it's not science, but the potential for an adverse public reaction that's stopping the company from going forward with the project.

"The technology is already there," he told Agence France-Presse. "If this is allowed, I don't think there are other companies better than Boyalife that make better technology."

For now, Boyalife is confining its activities to cloning cattle, with a reported 1 million cloned cows expected by 2020. Going forward, Xu, who previously worked at the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, has designs on reproducing racehorses, that dog you loved as a child and even primates. From there, the human implications are obvious, and Xu is ready.

"Unfortunately, currently, the only way to have a child is to have it be half its mum, half its dad," he told Agence France-Presse, adding that he hoped public opinion would evolve on the issue in a way similar to LGBT rights, which have been steadily progressing in China.

Xu has good reason to fear a potential backlash. At least in the United States, there has been consistent skepticism about the science of human cloning. This year, Gallup found that more than 80% of Americans consider human cloning "morally wrong," and more than 60% felt similarly for animals. An aggregation of polls from around the world by the Center for Genetics and Society found similar results across Canada, Britain Australia, Mexico, Taiwan, Denmark, Turkey and the European Union at various times over the last two decades.

Read the rest at Tech.Mic

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!