Now there’s a shocker. Those of us on this side of the isle have been saying this from the very beginning. Now scientists are finally admitting to it. This won’t get much play here in the United States.

Cloning research “clearly upsets the general public” yet it has limited potential for treating disease and adds little to scientific understanding of human biology, according to Professor Austin Smith of the University of Cambridge.

While it is in theory possible that cloned embryonic stem (ES) cells could be used to create patient-matched tissue for treating disease, significant technical barriers mean that this goal may never be realised in practice, he told The Times.

…While some cloning experiments proceed for the sake of intellectual curiosity, the research community should be much clearer about the limitations, Professor Smith said. “Its prominence is out of proportion to the significance of what’s being done, and there are real question marks about whether it has any utility at all,” he said.