The world's biggest cloning factory currently being built in China will be advanced enough to clone humans, but scientists are holding off on doing this over backlash fears. Xu Xiaochun, chief executive of Boyalife Group, told AFP that later on they could genetically engineer children so they'd a share of DNA from each parent, rather than 50/50.
Plans for the cloning factory were revealed earlier this month, with the Xinhua news agency announcing a package to create a commercial animal cloning centre in Tianjin, northeastern China. Main building work has already started and scientists are expected to start work there in the beginning of next year.Around 200m yuan (£20.5m) has been invested and the centre will even include a gene storage space and a museum. Among the first projects planned is to produce 100,000 cattle embryos in the first year amid China's beef shortages.
However, Xu said cloned cattle is merely the start of the ambitious plans for the centre. Along with racehorses and pet dogs, he eventually wants to turn his attention to human cloning. "The technology is there," he said. "If this really is allowed, I don't think there are others much better than Boyalife which make better technology."
At present, the company, which will be working with South Korean's cloning institute Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, said it was exercising self-restraint because of the potential public backlash. But as time goes on, if attitudes change, it would be willing to carry out human experiments, Xu said.
"Unfortunately, currently, the only way to really have a child is to possess it be half its mum, half its dad,. Maybe as time goes on you've three choices rather than one. You either have fifty-fifty, or you've a selection of experiencing the genetics 100% from daddy or 100% from mummy. That is only a choice."
For now, however, he is happy just to work on the cattle cloning: "We would like the general public to see that cloning is actually not too crazy, that scientists aren't weird, dressed up in lab coats, hiding behind a sealed door doing weird experiments."
Since 2000, scientists in China have cloned sheep, cattle and pigs, but more recently they have sought to clone animals for non-scientific research. The country's first commercial animal cloning centre opened in 2014 and its first project saw scientists clone three pure-blooded Tibetan mastiff puppies.
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