First Cloned Rhesus Monkey Reaches Adulthood

Facts

According to a study published in Nature Communications on Tuesday, a cloned rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) has successfully reached adulthood for the first time, having lived past the two-year mark.¹
The monkey — named ReTro — was cloned by Chinese researchers using an adjusted method from that used for the first-ever cloning of a mammal in 1996, Dolly the sheep.²
Dolly was cloned using a method called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), where the nucleus of a body cell is inserted into an egg whose nucleus has been removed. In 2022, a rhesus monkey was cloned this way but survived for less than 12 hours.¹
In the case of the rhesus monkeys, the scientists — after finding abnormalities in the placentas — removed the inner cells of a non-cloned embryo and inserted the cloned cells into it. This technique was applied to 113 embryos, with 11 implanted into a surrogate, resulting in ReTro — the only successful birth.³
Researchers have been working to clone rhesus monkeys because 93% of their DNA is shared with humans, making them prime test subjects for studying physiology, anatomy, and disease. However, other scientists still believe the cloning process is not efficient enough and requires more research.⁴
This comes after the same Chinese researchers cloned two identical cynomolgus monkeys in 2018 — the first-ever species of primate to be successfully cloned. The two monkeys are still alive today.²

Narrative A, as provided by The Times of India. Monkey cloning has a long and controversial history, but given that a cloned rhesus has lived happily and healthily for over two years now, the potential medical benefits should be our focus. Though it won't happen tomorrow, scientists can now work on developing medicine for conditions like visual impairment, deafness, heart disease, and metabolic conditions, as well as extremely rare diseases that cause immense suffering.
Narrative B, as provided by The Conversation. Many countries have excluded primates from scientific experiments due to their similarity to humans concerning abilities and feelings. If cloning monkeys are allowed to continue, not only will such torture of these creatures increase, but so will the market for buying and selling them into captivity. Whenever a creature is cloned and experimented on, it shows the humans using it have little care for their moral status — if this carelessness is normalized on monkeys, treating humans this way could be next.