Dolly scientist makes cloned embryos bid

[Guest guest]

Dolly scientist makes cloned embryos bid

 

IAN SWANSON

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=450272004

 

THE scientist behind Dolly the Sheep has applied for Britain’s first licence

to carry out research on cloned human embryos.

 

Professor Ian Wilmut from the Roslin Institute in Midlothian hopes to use

the embryos to find ways of treating motor neurone disease.

 

But the research could also help people suffering from Parkinson’s disease,

Alzheimer’s, diabetes and even heart attacks.

 

Therapeutic cloning for research has been legal in the UK since 2001, but

Professor Wilmut will be the first person to apply to the UK Human

Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for a human cloning licence.

 

The move is expected to provoke fierce opposition from pro-life campaigners.

 

But Professor Wilmut said the embryos involved were at a very early stage of

development and claimed it would be " immoral " not to take the chance to try

to help sufferers.

 

" We believe there will be a great number of potential benefits in research

from the ability to produce cells from cloned human embryos, " he said.

 

" It will create totally new opportunities to begin to understand diseases

and begin to test new drugs. " Professor Wilmut’s research would involve

cloning human embryos to generate stem cells, which would then be used for

the research.

 

He said: " Of course, for some people to do anything with a human embryo is a

deeply offensive idea, but it is critical to understand exactly the stage of

development we are talking about. "

 

He said the embryos involved were so small they could not be seen without

the aid of a microscope. " We would all agree a human at any stage of life

deserves respect, but for me and the people involved in this research, since

the embryo does not have that key human characteristic of awareness, it

would be immoral not to take the opportunity to study diseases. "

 

Motor neurone disease affects about 5000 people in the UK. It is caused by

the death of cells which control movement in the brain and spinal cord.

Symptoms include muscle weakness in one or more limbs and also the muscles

that supply the face and throat, causing problems with speech and difficulty

chewing and swallowing.

 

Professor Wilmut said there was currently no fully effective treatment for

conditions such as motor neurone disease.

 

" This research holds out the prospect that one day we will be able to treat

these conditions. "

 

Professor Wilmut and his team at Roslin were behind the world breakthrough

which produced Dolly the Sheep in 1996, the first mammal to be successfully

cloned from an adult.

 

In February this year, scientists in South Korea announced they had

successfully extracted stem cells from a cloned human embryo for the first

time.

 

In a magazine article earlier this year, Professor Wilmut said he remained

" implacably opposed " to reproductive human cloning but believed it was

acceptable to produce cloned embryos to help prevent genetic disease.

 

Science minister Lord Warner said there was a very robust system of

regulation of embryo research.

 

He stressed it was up to the HFEA to examine Professor Wilmut’s application.

 

But he said: " We believe, as successive governments have believed, that

there are serious diseases for which we have no cure and it is important to

allow research to take place to find cures. "