In spite of Richard Seed’s claim to duplicate humanity, one SIUC researcher believes a world of genetically copied humans is far from reach.

There is no way that we have the capability right now to clone human beings, said Leonard E. Maroun, a professor of advanced cellular microbiology at the SIU School of Medicine in Springfield. The clone of Dolly was just one example and is not enough to make a conclusion. We are still 25, 50 even possibly 75 years away from cloning humans.

On Jan. 7, Seed, an independent Chicago scientist, announced his intention to use the same technique used to clone the sheep, Dolly, to produce a human clone. Seed said he wants to begin his work as soon as possible, but he is waiting for private funds.

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Last year, President Clinton issued a ban on federally funded human cloning research.

After Seed’s announcement, Clinton insisted Saturday that Congress move to ban all human cloning research through legislation. On Monday, 19 nations signed an agreement to prohibit the genetic replication of humans.

The idea of genetic cloning evolved from scientists’ search for cures of human diseases. Scientists looked towards animals to produce the answers.

By mutating animal cells, some believe that organs produced in animals could be used in humans. The cloning of Dolly entailed taking an unfertilized egg from an adult ewe and removing its genetic contents. The scientists then inserted the genes from another sheep’s cell, carrying the genetic code of both its parents.

The hybrid egg was implanted into a third ewe, and eleven months ago, an exact duplicate of that second sheep was born.

In October, the Associated Press reported that British researchers successfully created frog embryos without heads. This was a test designed to prove that animals and possibly humans could be cloned without heads, so internal organs could be used as transplants.

Yet the cloning of animals is quite different from the cloning of humans not simply for biological reasons, but for ethical reasons.

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The ethics of the cloning issue, involving the potential likelihood that the child would be normal is extremely unlikely. Maroun said. Rather, it will most likely be mentally retarded.

Aside from ethical issues, Andrzej Bartke, professor of physiology at the School of Medicine in Carbondale, like many in the scientific community, says the recent public outcry about human cloning is because of wild stories. Like Maroun, he does not believe the technology is available to clone humans.

The media has taken this situation and turned it into a sensationalistic news event, he said. It’s the kind of news you could find in a grocery checkout line.

Nevertheless, Bartke believes someday human cloning may be used in fertilization research.

If a man could not produce sperm, in assisted reproductive technology, theoretically, you could use some other cell to create a baby, he said. The child would look identical to whoever’s cell was used.

But because of the human cloning controversy, Maroun finds the relationship between the science community and the general public disheartening.

We, as scientists, work for the public, he said. We want to look at the information and how it concerns the general public. The fear the public now has for science must be cured by education.