Ask A Scientist© Biology Archive

Author:      damian
Text:        Can a human be cloned?  How far are we from doing it?

Response #:  1 of 1
Author:      psych
Text:       There is some debate as to whether it will ever be possible.  The 
reason is that most specialized cell (ie. skin, hair, heart . . .) may not 
have all the genetic information necessary to form a complete person.  At 
least in some tissues, not only is unexpressed genetic information 
deactivated, it may also be taken out of that cells genome.  My suspicion is 
that we are at least several decades from cloning humans due to the technical 
difficulty and because so much more needs to be known about fetal development.