CLONING PIONEER DEFENDS CLONING

October 24, 1997

LONDON (Reuters) -- The creation of Dolly the sheep has ushered in the dawn of the clone age which should be encouraged, not stopped, one of the scientists who pioneered the technique said Thursday.

"Not only can you not stop science, but I think it would be a mistake to do so," Dr Ian Wilmut, one of the scientists who cloned Dolly, told the BBC's Horizon program.

The scientist made his comments amid new scientific controversy over the creation of a headless frog, which pointed to the possibility of organ farming to create human replacement parts.

Genetically engineered plant and animal products are already being tested and scientists believe human organs grown from a single cell could be a possibility in the future.

Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh shocked the world when they announced that they had created the world's first adult clone from a single cell.

The news led to fears of humans being created in laboratories, sparked calls for a ban on cloning and prompted debates about its moral and ethical implications.

Wilmut said he shares the almost universal concern that cloning should not be misused, but he said the technique used to create Dolly could have many medical and scientific benefits.

"Just think how many things there are which we take for granted which have come from biological research in the last 50 to 100 years. The genetic research now being carried out is going to produce a whole range of similar opportunities which we can't even begin to predict," he said.

Transgenic sheep that have partly human genes are producing a human protein, AAT, that is being tested for use in treating cystic fibrosis, and genetically engineered cows are making human lactoferrin, which helps to boost the immune system.

Leading British embryologist Jonathan Slack, of Bath University in south-western England, has even raised the possibility of using a single cell to grow human organs and tissues for transplant surgery.

Slack has created headless frog embryos by manipulating certain genes.

Although some scientists have denounced the research, described on the Horizon program, as repugnant, Slack believes human cloned organs could be grown.

If the technique is ever developed it would avert the risk of the recipient rejecting the organ because the tissue would be perfectly matched. It would also relieve the shortage of donated organs.

Slack admitted that using human embryos to produce organs would never be acceptable, but he said technological advances could make it possible to grow a complete organ or tissue in a bottle from a single cell.