I have long asserted that conducting ESCR and human cloning research is not intended, nor will it long remain, in the Petri dish. Rather, the real game is implantation and gestation into the late embryo and fetal stages, which would better permit disease studies, research into genetic engineering, organ harvesting, etc.
Primate cloning is the precursor to learning how to do human cloning. Now, a paper (Human Reproduction Vol.22, No.8 pp. 2232*2242, 2007) published in a professional journal (no link), shows scientists indeed want to conduct fetal farming in monkey models:
The availability of reliable, efficient methods for producing viable SCNT embryos in the monkey should support the derivation, characterization and transplantation of autologous, immunocompatible ESCs in efforts to restore form and function to damaged tissues in a preclinical model. However, our goal of producing neurodegenerative disease models in the monkey from gene targeted donor cells will require pregnancy establishment following SCNT embryo transfer into synchronized recipients.When human fetal farming begins—assuming it can be technologically—don’t say you weren’t warned.
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