ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997 TAG: 9704070040
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY THE ROANOKE TIMES
Ethical and scientific experts clash over the future of human cloning but agree the public might have misunderstood the importance of Dolly the cloned sheep.
A Virginia ethicist and the scientist who spearheaded the cloning of a sheep agree that anyone who considers it a prelude to human cloning has put the wrong emphasis on this scientific breakthrough.
Dr. Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute in Scotland, which cloned the sheep, and Dr. John Fletcher, professor of biomedical ethics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, disagree, however, on what the future of the process should be.
Fletcher says human cloning would be a morally accepted procedure if it could give couples an alternative to abortion when they want to avoid passing on bad genes.
Wilmut disagrees. He testified last month before a congressional committee that human cloning would be unethical.
Wilmut's company, which has a division in Blacksburg, cloned the sheep to develop technology for efficiently reproducing animals whose genes have been altered so their milk carries proteins valuable in drug production.
But, the process which produced the sheep, which involved the discarding of improperly developed embryos and the birth of abnormal lambs, "would be totally unacceptable" and perhaps technically impossible with humans, he said.
The work of Wilmut's U.S. company and the ethical issues of cloning are discussed in stories in today's Business section.
Fletcher suggests that, with a more efficient process, human cloning would be feasible, but he's concerned that it is being viewed too much in the context of asexual reproduction.
Rather than a threat to the relationship of men and women, cloning should be considered another acceptable option for infertile couples and couples who carry genes that would cause offspring great pain or death, he said.
Fletcher said he also hopes the national apprehension caused by the cloning of mammals won't interfere with research that is needed in reproduction and gene therapy. The announcement last week that an artificial human chromosome had been created was bigger news than the cloning of a mammal, he said.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB