A team of Chinese scientists have successfully cloned monkeys for the first time, according to a newly released research paper.
In a paper published by the scientific journal Cell on Wednesday, Muming Poo of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai announced that his team has successfully used the same method that produced the famed cloned sheep, Dolly, to clone two macaques.
“The barrier of cloning primate species is now overcome,” Poo said, according to The Associated Press.
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The scientists had to use 127 eggs to successfully clone the two baby macaques, according to the AP, and the successful clone came after the Chinese scientists replaced DNA in a monkey egg with DNA from a monkey fetus.
The team has yet to produce a healthy baby from an adult monkey but the AP reports the scientists are still trying and are waiting on the results of numbers pregnancies.
Poo said the new development means that technically, humans could be cloned, but that the team would never attempt that because it would likely be banned for ethical reasons.
Michigan State University scientists Jose Cibelli told the AP that it would be “criminal” to attempt cloning humans via the same method the monkeys were cloned because of how many pregnancies fail.
The activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) condemned the breakthrough in a statement to the AP.
“Cloning is a horror show: a waste of lives, time and money — and the suffering that such experiments cause is unimaginable,” PETA’s senior vice president Kathy Guillermo said.