Tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson has claimed that he cloned himself as a newborn baby as part of his pursuit of longevity and organ regeneration.
Johnson, 48, announced his claim on the social media platform X, stating that this cloned newborn, which he refers to as "baby-Bryan," will exist in a petri dish. He articulated a plan for the clone to be used for testing experimental therapies, growing transplantable organs, developing new treatments, and potentially serving as a source for young cell injections and future blood transfusions.
"This may be scary to some people…a dystopian future. But for others, they will see it as the inevitable future of health," Johnson posted on X, noting that he already receives blood transfusions from his teenage son.
Johnson, who has publicly discussed his quest for eternal youth and was recently diagnosed with gastritis, described his cloning initiative as a "frontier of new paths" to reverse aging. He suggested that this technology could also be applied to conditions such as Parkinson's disease, heart health, and eyesight restoration.
However, medical professionals have expressed doubt regarding the feasibility and ethics of Johnson's claims. Dr. Marc Siegel, a senior medical analyst, stated that such cloning is not currently possible, comparing Johnson's assertions to science fiction. Siegel explained that while techniques exist to reprogram adult stem cells, attempting to grow an entire organism or its organs from a single adult stem cell for transplantation purposes is fraught with potential errors and diseases, and is considered unethical.
Siegel clarified that the cloning techniques used with primates do not translate to replicating a human being or growing organs in the manner Johnson described. He emphasized that current scientific understanding and capabilities do not support the idea of cloning oneself to harvest organs or to regenerate the body, stating, "We aren't going to be able to clone ourselves. Our DNA and genetics doesn’t want us to."