Are Humans Next?

It used to be only in cartoons or movies we would see this mystical idea that we could clone things. And now, it’s looking more possible than ever that we will be able to clone humans one day. Anyone who has been following cloning technology may remember Dolly the sheep, who was cloned and born in Scotland in 1996. Well, these Chinese scientists used the same technology used to clone Dolly to create Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, two identical long-tailed macaques. They weren’t successful immediately, much like with the cloning of Dolly, and made many attempts at cloning the monkeys before they were successful.

These two monkeys were born eight and six weeks ago, and are as adorable as any other monkey. They were the first two primates to ever be cloned, which is leaving many thinking humans could be next, as humans are also in that family (primates being the order of mammals that includes monkeys, apes and humans). Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai are hoping their research can be used in the field of disease in monkeys, but of course people are talking about the next step being humans.

According to NBC News, the scientists have made it very clear that their goal is not to start cloning humans.

“Humans are primates. So (for) the cloning of primate species, including humans, the technical barrier is now broken,” Muming Poo, who helped supervise the program at the institute, told reporters in a conference call.
“The reason … we broke this barrier is to produce animal models that are useful for medicine, for human health. There is no intention to apply this method to humans.”