Two men who defied scientific community to blaze a trail

Sunday Herald, The, Jan 18, 2004

THE PIONEERS

CYPRUS-born Panos Zavos obtained a doctorate in animal science from the University of Minnesota. He was professor at the University of Kentucky, where he taught animal science, until February 2001 when he gave up his position to concentrate on human cloning.

He runs a sperm analysis business, the AndrologyInstitute of America, and his company, Zavos Diagnostic Laboratories, sells medicalsupplies to fertility businesses. He also runs a Lexington fertility clinic with his wife.

Zavos had specialised in helping couples choose the sex of their child using sperm-sorting techniques and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis - a technique that tells whether embryos are male or female.

He has recently opened a clinic in Cyprus where he iscelebrated. Last year, the Greek News carried a front-page article about a visit by Zavos to his home town. The article described him as the "father of reproductive cloning".

He has courted publicity throughout his cloning attempts. The charismaticscientist even arranged for a British documentary team to film every development.

He has also orchestrated media announcements to ensure that his exploits are given maximum coverage.

While regarded as amaverick, his papers havebeen accepted at scientific gatherings, including the annual meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. While fellow fertility specialists criticise his decision to clone humans, many believe he has the know- how to do it.

On his own website, Zavos states: "Dr Zavos has been a true pioneer! He has had along career as a world renowned authority in human reproduction."

Dr Paul Rainsbury, above, is a consultant gynaecologist and medical director of the Regional Centre for Reproductive Medicine at the Bupa Roding Hospital in Ilford.

In 2001, he set up a controversial scheme to fly infertile women treated at his clinic to Madrid where they were implanted with eggs sold by Spanish women. Paying women for their eggs is banned in the UK.

The infertile women flown to Spain had the majority of their treatment at the Rainsbury clinic in Essex and flew out to Madrid for as little as two days to have the eggs implanted.

For a number of years, Rainsbury has been sending patients who wish to choose the sex of their child to Zavos's clinic in the US where the gender of the embryos is tested using pre-implanted genetic diagnosis. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis for "family balancing" is banned in the UK.

Rainsbury also plans to work with Zavos on a new technique called embryo splitting. Embryos would be split in two before being implanted in the womb. The extra embryo would be an artificial twin or clone. The purpose would be to give women with infertility problems more embryos to implant and, therefore, a greater chance of pregnancy. The other possibility would be storing the extra embryo to use for "spare parts" should a baby develop an illness that could be treated with stem cells. Rainsbury had intended to help look for surrogate mothers to carry cloned embryos in the UK. Plans were made for him to prepare the surrogates for receiving the cloned embryos in this country before flying them abroad, probably to the Middle East, to be implanted with clones. Rainsbury would have given them medication to prepare their bodies to accept the embryos. But the direct involvement in the cloning programme was called off after opposition from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in the UK.

Suzi Leather, HFEA chair, said: "Reproductive cloning is utterly wrong and against the law. All the work [on such cloning] in animals indicates it is absolutely unsafe and causes great suffering. No woman could make an informed choice to take part in this because, if she knew the risks, she wouldn't do it."