[forwarded by Sigma Xi's Media Resource Service)
Today's Headlines - December 17, 1998
SOUTH KOREAN SCIENTISTS SAY THEY CLONED HUMAN CELL
from The New York Times
SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korean scientists said Wednesday that they had cloned a human cell from an infertile woman, creating a four-cell embryo that theoretically could have grown into a genetically identical replica of the woman. But they said that because of the legal and ethical implications of their work, they stopped the experiment and did not try to create a human clone.
The scientists, at a major hospital here, are believed to be the first to publicly claim that they taken steps to clone a human being. Their research has not been confirmed or reviewed by other scientists, but experts in the United States said that although they did not know of the scientists' work, the requisite techniques had been demonstrated in animals and that there was no theoretical reason they could not be applied to people.
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/121798sci-clone.html