New cloning advance: Are we now closer to the cloning of a human baby?

(Vatican Radio) U.S. Scientists announced this week that they have managed to recover stem cells from cloned human embryos for the first time ever. So does this new advance bring closer the day when scientists will succeed in cloning a viable human baby? That was one of the questions Susy Hodges put to Dr David Jones, Director of the Anscombe Catholic Bioethics Centre at Oxford in England.

Listen to the extended interview with Dr David Jones:

Asked for his reaction to the news that scientists after more than a decade of efforts, have managed to get stem cells from cloned human embryos, Dr Jones says it’s a “major technical advance” but one that has “worrying ethical implications.” He also points out that this advance is going in an opposite direction from the most recent stem cell research which is focusing more on induced pluripotent stem cells and other different types that do not make use of human embryos.

Dr Jones says he believes this advance has brought “a lot closer” the possibility that “some maverick scientist somewhere” will produce one day a cloned baby and this underscores the urgent need for “renewed efforts for an international ban on the cloning of human embryos.”