BRITAIN: Plans to clone human embryos for disease research announced by the scientist who created Dolly the cloned sheep have received a cold response from support groups, medical specialists and the Pro Life Campaign.
Prof Ian Wilmut stated yesterday on BBC Radio 4 that he wants to clone human embryos, saying it would be "immoral" not to use this technique to study human diseases.
If granted by the watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, it would be the UK's first licence to clone human embryos. "We cannot confirm or deny we have received any application," a spokeswoman at the HFEA said yesterday. "We are allowed to licence and have been able to do so since 2001. We certainly haven't granted any licences so far," she added.
Prof Wilmut wants to study motor neuron disease using cloned embryos. These may be produced under UK legislation but must be destroyed when they reach 14 days old. "This will create totally new opportunities to begin to understand disease. To begin to test new drugs and to research disease in totally new ways," Prof Wilmut said.
The plan was dismissed yesterday by Prof Desmond O'Neill, former medical director of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, consultant geriatrician and professor of geriatrics at Trinity College, Dublin. "It is quite cynical and it is raising hopes," he said, adding: "It is far from clear whether this will be superior to adult stem cell studies."
Raising hopes, despite a long wait for new treatments, was not a good idea, according to Ms Bernie Moran of the Huntington's Disease Association of Ireland. "People are vulnerable. Presenting this when there are so few services is wrong. We need to put legislation in place to protect our people from this science."
"Cloning is incompatible with the dignity one would expect for a human being," said Dr Berry Kiely, medical advisor for the Pro Life Campaign. "The fact this is for therapeutic rather than reproductive cloning doesn't change that situation."