Panayiotis Zavos does not shy away from media attention. The fertility specialist has told The Independent that he has been trying to implant human embryos using material cloned from living individuals. Everybody from the Indy’s local competition to outraged scientists and sober wire services have weighed in.

Zavos has attempted to implant 11 human embryos in four women since 2003 according to The Independent, and a Discovery Channel film-maker who has witnessed the process and whose television programme premieres tonight at 9pm:

The cloning was recorded by an independent documentary film-maker who has testified to The Independent that the cloning had taken place and that the women were genuinely hoping to become pregnant with the first cloned embryos specifically created for the purposes of human reproduction.

Zavos has previously attempted controversial cloning-related treatments and attracted the ire of other fertility researchers in 2004, when he announced a result ahead of academic publication. Zavos, born on Cyprus but a naturalized US citizen, reportedly carries out his cloning attempts in the Middle East to avoid anti-human cloning laws in other countries.

He also claims to have spliced tissue from a dead child with an embryo from a cow as a learning exercise, though he has not attempted to implant the hybrid embryo. The child’s mother reportedly wouldn’t mind if he did. While none of these attempts with living cloned material have succeeded, his group plans to try again with 10 younger couples, according to the Indy.