In China, two healthy, cloned monkeys were born after having been created with the same method that was famously used with Dolly the sheep back in 1996. Until now, they haven’t been able to use that method to create babies in primates like monkeys, apes and people.
Muming Poo of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai told CBS News, “The barrier of cloning primate species is now overcome.” This means scientists are now closer to human cloning than ever before, though the scientists involved said they have no intention of doing so for ethical reasons. Poo told CBS News the intention is to create genetically identical monkeys for use in medical research since they are more similar to humans than mice or rats which are typically used in medical research. It wasn’t easy getting two cloned monkeys as they used 127 eggs to get the two monkeys.