The key that scientists have to master is the extraction of the ES cells from the embryo before it stops growing. Scientists need to determine whether ES cells can be taken from an embryo, which was created by fusing a human egg with a stripped cow egg. Cibelli refuses to talk about what they have done and their progress surrounding their project, but they have gone to a European patent office involving fusing human fibroblasts with stripped cow eggs. "If something stops this work, it won't be technical problems, it will be legal or ethical issues," (Philip Cohen, July 11, 1998) according to Cibelli. Arthur Caplan a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia thinks that the technique of the fusing of the eggs will always be controversial. However, since it does not create viable human embryos, it does avoid the worst ethical quagmire. Scientists need to discuss with legislators, and eventually the public, the exciting results that this type of cloning can produce. They must also discuss the ethical questions and set up safeguards. This type of discussion can reduce the fear of cloning. Throughout these discussions is important to note, however, that this technology can eventually alleviate problems with the short supply of organs and tissues without having to clone viable human beings. (Philip Cohen, July 11, 1998).
In New Zealand a team of scientists have cloned the last surviving member of a very rare breed of cow. They have cloned no fewer then ten identical calves from the adult Friesian. The calves were born in August and September at the Ruakura Research Center in Hamilton, New Zealand. These ten calves demonstrate that cloning livestock has quickly become efficient. David Wells of the Ruakura center explains the cloning technique that creates a six-hour delay between fusing an adult cell with one that has been stripped of its nuclei and the start of cell division in the resulting embryo.
