Mark Hunt Funds Human Cloning

In 2001, West Virginia attorney Mark Hunt, whose infant son Andrew died at 10 months old after surgery for several birth defects, secretly funded a human cloning laboratory in hopes of replicating his child. Hunt and his wife Tracy enlisted a French biochemist and formed a company called Bioserve to finance the project. Their plan copied animal cloning techniques: scientists would extract DNA from Andrew’s tissue, place it into a human egg with its own DNA removed, and implant the reconstructed egg into a surrogate mother. After ABC News exposed the secret lab, Hunt said he would not start another facility, but he also admitted he still hoped that future cloning technology might give his son's genetic makeup a chance to continue.

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