By Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press, Royan Institute
30 December 2005
The cloning program has won backing from the country's Muslim Shiite religious leaders, who have issued religious decrees authorizing animal cloning but banning human reproductive cloning. A majority of Iran's nearly 70 million people are Shiites.
In contrast, Sunni Muslim religious leaders, including senior clerics in Saudi Arabia, have banned cloning altogether, even in animals.
The cloning effort is a result of Iran's stem cell research in recent years. Officials say researchers tried to impregnate five sheep with cloned embryos and one of the sheep is expected to deliver on Feb. 14.
"Of five surrogate mothers, three of the sheep are pregnant. One of them has two babies in its womb, an unprecedented occurrence in the world's brief cloning history," said Saeed Kazemi Ashtiani, head of Iran's Royan (Embryo) Institute.
The latest ultrasonic evaluation, performed by veterinarians last week, showed the twins in good health.
"Fortunately, everything is pointing in the right direction. We appear to be in a perfect shape."
Scientists at Royan Institute also tried to clone a cow, but it led to an abortion in the early weeks of pregnancy.
Cloning sheep and cows would help the scientists with research aimed at producing medicine in the animals' milk. Cloned animals also could be developed to produce human antibodies against infectious diseases.
"Our final aim of animal cloning is to create ground for new research in the country and prepare Iran scientifically to carry out cloning treatment, provided global agreements are reached," Ashtiani said.
Under a 20-year development plan, Iran aims to become a base for high technology and a scientific powerhouse in western Asia by 2025.
Cloning has provoked ethical concerns, especially over the possibility that it might be used to clone humans. In 2004, South Korean scientists announced that they had cloned 30 human embryos, grown them in the laboratory until they were a hollow ball of cells, and produced a line of stem cells from them. Little more is known about it.
Ashtiani said Iranian researchers would never try to clone a human being because it would not be allowed in the country.
http://www.royaninstitute.org
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