Iranian researchers have successfully cloned Iran and the Middle East’s first calf in what is viewed as a scientific breakthrough.
Following the successful cloning of various farm animals, including a lamb named ‘Royana’ and a kid named ‘Hanna’, a cloned calf was successfully born at Royan institute in Isfahan, Iran.
The calf known as ‘Bonyana’ — meaning the foundation and principle — is the result of a considerable number of in-vitro fertilizations (IVF) in more than 100 recipient cows.
The cloned calf, which was born after 270 days of pregnancy through a cesarean section, is reported to be in good health.
Royan institute researchers hope to clone certain species at high risk of extinction in the near future.
The team of cloned calf research – Royan institute
July 12, 2009 at 8:06 am
Congratulations to the Iranian research team.
July 12, 2009 at 10:15 am
Mary, for further information you can visit the Royan Institute site here: http://royaninstitute.org
July 12, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Curiously, the English section of their website hasn’t mentioned this in the news yet! (The Persian section is updated though)
July 12, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Mohammad, yeah, i noticed that. I gave the link for general information about Royan Institute, not particularely this case anyway..
July 13, 2009 at 1:00 am
Alhamdulillah, Shahrzad. It’s good to see at least one Muslim country taking science seriously.
July 26, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Let’s hope that Iranian scientists don’t get caught up in the junk “ethics debate” that Western (especially American) scientists are being forced to endure.
July 29, 2009 at 6:13 am
Interesting thought, Charlene. I’ve been wondering what are the science ethics debates in Islam. I was raised in Roman Catholicism. While I don’t agree with every decision the Church makes, I do appreciate that they offer moral guidance. A question that comes to mind for me is that I know the RC Church frowns on in vitro fertilization because not all embryos are used, but they feel that God may well endow the blastula with a soul at the moment of fertilziation and the first splitting of the original cell. Given that concern, embryos disposed of or used in testing are human lives murdered. Other religious traditions may have different beliefs about just when the soul is first present and may well feel very differently about IVF, testing on embryos or embryonic stem cells, how long to store frozen embryos, what happens if the potential parents can no longer afford to pay for storage of embryos. And I am curious about what religous traditions other than my own teach about these questions, what debates they have about them, because I would like to gain a better understanding. What common ground, what differences do our differing religions have? Do my personal beliefs fit best within my own traditions, or might I discover an affinity with another?
July 29, 2009 at 10:09 pm
In Islam beside the fact that “if you save a human, you save all humankind”, Organ donation is OK. But cloning ‘human’ is strictly forbidden.
BTW, ‘Bonyana’ the clonned Calf unfortumately some days after birth: http://news.parseek.com/Url/?id=3286640
July 30, 2009 at 10:29 am
Poor little Bonyana, and his brother Tamina. Cloning is still frontier science. Perhaps scientists at the Royan Istitute will make the advances that avoid the fevers clones calves are subject to getting.