Scientist reports on attempt to clone child

A Kentucky fertility specialist has published the world’s first scientific account of an attempt to create a cloned child, a scientific milestone that many researchers will likely condemn.

Although the 2004 attempt failed, the new paper will allow scientists to scrutinize it, and potentially give a roadmap to others interested in trying to create cloned babies.

The lead scientist, Dr. Panos Zavos of Lexington, Ky., announced he had done the experiment in 2004, which sparked an enormous controversy because of ethical objections and because virtually all scientists believe that the technology places a cloned child at risk for serious medical problems.

The new paper, published in an obscure scientific journal, the Archives of Andrology, is a detailed technical description of his 2004 attempt. Zavos said in an interview today that he has made a total of five attempts at “reproductive cloning,” as it is known, and that he is doing the work to help couples that have no other way to reproduce.

He said the couples understand the risks to any child produced through cloning. The work was not done in the United States, he said, but declined to say where it was done.