THE first monkeys have been born after being ‘cloned in the same way as Dolly the Sheep’ - not mimicking nature by splitting an embryo in half, but by creating an embryo from cell tissue from one monkey and the enucleated egg from another, scientists in China have announced the birth of a genetically identical twin ‘healthy’ macaques, ‘said to be growing normally’, the first healthy survivors of many such experiments; ‘more cloned births are expected this year’, raising ‘concerns that it may soon be possible to clone humans’.

China has given the world many wonderful things, but whatever our ethical views we should be cautious about excepting this experiment as virtuous intent.

Dr Callum Mackellar of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics warns of “a very serious risk that human clones would be just created to fulfil the desires of their creators”.

In due course no doubt human ingenuity will provide us with human clones, but cloning a person’s true humanity is more difficult than replicating human selfishness.

We will never get the children we want until we want the children we have.

Norman Plaisted
Vivian Road
Newport