Wednesday, September 29, 2004
UK application for licence to clone humans
Scientists who created Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, have applied for a licence to clone human embryos to obtain stem cells for research into Motor Neurone Disease. Professor Ian Wilmut, of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, hopes to study how the paralysing illness - also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease - develops, with a view to finding an effective treatment.
If the licence is approved by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), Britain's cloning watchdog, it will be the second granted for the controversial research, which has incited fierce ethical debate because it involves creating human embryos which can be mined for their stem cells.
Those concerned with bioethics and where this technology might be taking us are deeply concerned at the push for both cloning and stem cell research. Not the least because the debate is dishonest. Reputable scientists are acknowledging that the likelihood of research producing any sort of cure in the foreseeable future is extremely remote.
The UK seems to be the hot-house for those pushing the boundaries. Therapeutic cloning has actually been banned in many countries. The Germans, who know a thing or two about where science can go wrong, banned it in 1990. Australia banned it last year. The latest country to ban the procedure was Canada, where the ban was finalized in April of this year. The French are next in line. The United States is among the many countries supporting Costa Rica’s attempt to get an international convention banning cloning through the UN. Among the big democracies, only the UK, which has been in the pro-embryo-research lead for 25 years, is in favour of therapeutic cloning.
Scientists who created Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, have applied for a licence to clone human embryos to obtain stem cells for research into Motor Neurone Disease. Professor Ian Wilmut, of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, hopes to study how the paralysing illness - also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease - develops, with a view to finding an effective treatment.
If the licence is approved by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), Britain's cloning watchdog, it will be the second granted for the controversial research, which has incited fierce ethical debate because it involves creating human embryos which can be mined for their stem cells.
Those concerned with bioethics and where this technology might be taking us are deeply concerned at the push for both cloning and stem cell research. Not the least because the debate is dishonest. Reputable scientists are acknowledging that the likelihood of research producing any sort of cure in the foreseeable future is extremely remote.
The UK seems to be the hot-house for those pushing the boundaries. Therapeutic cloning has actually been banned in many countries. The Germans, who know a thing or two about where science can go wrong, banned it in 1990. Australia banned it last year. The latest country to ban the procedure was Canada, where the ban was finalized in April of this year. The French are next in line. The United States is among the many countries supporting Costa Rica’s attempt to get an international convention banning cloning through the UN. Among the big democracies, only the UK, which has been in the pro-embryo-research lead for 25 years, is in favour of therapeutic cloning.
