Panayiotis Michael Zavos ( el, Παναγιώτης Ζαβός), or Panos Zavos (, ), is a physiologist who was born in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

and later emigrated to the United States. Zavos has been the subject of controversy for making unsubstantiated claims that he can clone human beings.

Academic career

Zavos received a Bachelor of Science in biology-chemistry in 1970, a Master of Science in biology-physiology in 1972, and an Education Specialist in Science (Ed.S.) in 1976 from

Emporia State University Emporia State University (Emporia State or ESU) is a public university in Emporia, Kansas, United States. Established in March 1863 as the Kansas State Normal School, Emporia State is the third-oldest public university in the state of Kansas. E ...

in Emporia, Kansas. He earned a doctorate in animal physiology in 1978 from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

. He also received an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

in 2008. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Emporia State University Zavos is

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

in reproductive physiology at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

. He was named as an Honorary Professor by the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republi ...

, and as a Professor Emeritus by the Venkateshwara Institute of Medicine in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He has served as a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Middle East Fertility Society.

Cloning claims

Zavos claims to have created and implanted cloned human embryos. However, Zavos' claims were roundly dismissed after he failed to produce any proof and have been widely condemned by doctors, politicians, and religious and pressure groups. Professor Hans Evers, chairman of the

European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) was founded in 1985 by Robert Edwards (University of Cambridge) and J. Cohen (Paris), who felt that the study and research in the field of reproduction needed to be encouraged and ...

, stated: “All the scientific evidence so far indicates that it is completely impossible to clone humans. Anyone claiming that he is going to clone a human does not know what he is talking about. All these guys, including Zavos are doing damage to the profession and goodwill we have built up for many years in the area of fertility treatments." Professor Robert Winston,

emeritus professor ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of fertility studies at Imperial College London, said "I do not know of any credible evidence that suggests Dr Zavos can clone a human being. This seems to be yet another one of his claims to get repeated publicity".

Arthur Caplan Arthur L. Caplan (born 1950) is the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Professor of Bioethics at New York University Grossman School of Medicine and the founding director of the Division of Medical Ethics. Caplan has made many contribut ...

, a

bioethicist Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, med ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

said of Zavos, "I think he is the most dangerous of the current fringe proponents of cloning, because he knows more, stretches the facts, and seems to be wallowing in a mix of publicity and fund-raising that rests on a foundation of hype."

UK Health Secretary The secretary of state for health and social care, also referred to as the health secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department of Health and Social Care. The incumbent ...

John Reid condemned Zavos' attempts to create a cloned human baby as a "gross misuse of genetic science". Spyros Simitis, the brother of former Greek Prime Minister

Costas Simitis Konstantinos G. Simitis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Γ. Σημίτης; born 23 June 1936), usually referred to as Costas Simitis or Kostas Simitis (Κώστας Σημίτης), is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece a ...

, characterized Zavos's claims as "scientific barbarism". He said that if human cloning were to become reality, it would mean the "end of human freedom and evolution". He also referred to the possible use of

cloning Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, c ...

by governments for controlling and shaping society according to the government's will.

References

External links

Professor Zavos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zavos, Panayiotis 1944 births Living people University of Minnesota alumni American people of Greek Cypriot descent 21st-century American biologists Cypriot scientists Greek Cypriot people People from Lexington, Kentucky Cypriot emigrants to the United States Emporia State University alumni People from Famagusta District Pseudoscientific biologists