JOHANNESBURG, Feb 14: A South African doctor and his team are ready to clone humans, and are applying to a local university's ethics committee for permission to go ahead with the procedure, reports here said today.Four South African women desperate to have children were willing to allow Dr Mohamed Cassim to attempt to create replicas of themselves or their husbands, the Saturday Star reported.
The report said expertise and equipment to replicate genetic material and create human clones was available at a fertility clinic here.
Cassim told the newspaper: ``Getting the genetic material into an egg to produce a clone is easy. My son could do it. With the technology we have in our laboratory, the procedure is as easy as fiddling with some controls.'' A South African health department spokesman said he believed cloning was illegal in terms of the Human Tissues Act. ``Genetic manipulation of sperm or eggs is not permitted.
Cloning, according to our interpretation, falls under genetic manipulation,'' MorrisConradie said. The Health Minister's office said she would not be tackling the issue, as South Africa had more important matters to deal with ``like the backlog in providing basic healthcare services''.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
