[NOTE: The "rationale" behind the British amendment that allows Wilmut to clone human beings is exactly the same "rationale" behind Irving Weissman's California Stem Cell Initiative (Proposition 71), as well as the two reports on human cloning and HESCR he chaired for the National Academy of Sciences, and the Stearn CongressionalÊcloning "ban". That is, they claim that the immediate product of nuclear transplantation is JUST A CELL, not an ORGANISM (i.e., a human BEING). When the "cell" grows to the blastocyst stage, they claim,Êit is JUST A BALL OF CELLS, not an ORGANISM. Even the "embryo" is defined by them as "just a ball of cells", not an ORGANISM -- a human being. Therefore they try to claim that what they are doing is just stemÊCELL research -- aka, "therapeutic cloning". That is, cloning isn't cloningÊif the PURPOSE is for research rather than to make a "baby". This is pure unadulterated scientific fraud and it is time that somebody say that and thatÊthe scientific profession as a whole -- internationally --Êdo something to stop it before it is too late -- and before good science suffers the consequences. The objective scientific fact is that the immediate product of BOTH sexual and asexual human reproduction is a new, GENETICALLY UNIQUE, living single-cellÊhuman ORGANISM, an individual human BEING. For extensive references for the accurate science, as well as for the legislation noted above, see Irving, "Analysis:ÊStearns' Congressional Human Cloning Fairy Tale 'Ban'; New Age and Transhumanist Legislation for 'Converging Technologies'?" (Sept. 8, 2004), at: http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/irv/irv_77stearncloningtale1.html. -- DNI]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3695186.stm Ê BBC News
Sept. 28, 2004
The scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep have formally applied for a licence to clone human embryos to find a cure for motor neurone disease.
If granted, Professor Ian Wilmut's team at Edinburgh's Roslin Institute would clone cells from MND patients to see how the illness develops in an embryo.
The licensing body, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority granted a similar licence in August.
The application has provoked criticism from pro-life campaigners.
Therapeutic cloning for research has been legal in the UK since 2001.
In August this year, scientists at the University of Newcastle were given permission to perform therapeutic cloning using human embryos for the first time.
They wanted to duplicate early stage embryos and extract stem cells from them which can be used for radical new treatments for a host of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes.
In comparison, Professor Wilmut wants to create cloned embryos with MND.
Cloning process
Professor Wilmut has stressed that his team has no intention of producing cloned babies, and said the diseased embryos would be destroyed after experimentation.
Professor Wilmut said: "I would emphasise that, at this time, our objective is to understand the disease.
"Knowledge often does have two edges to it.
"We owe it to the people who suffer from it (MND) and are going to suffer from it in the future to try and develop treatments for them."
MND is caused by the death of cells - called motor neurones - that control movement in the brain and spinal cord.
It affects about 5,000 people in the UK. Half of people with MND die within 14 months of diagnosis.
Weakness in the muscles that supply the face and throat also cause problems with speech and difficulty chewing and swallowing.
The aim is to study what goes wrong in the nerve cells of patients suffering from MND so they can improve their understanding of how the disease develops.
The researchers say cloning is necessary for this because the key cells are in the central nervous system of the sufferers and therefore cannot be analysed themselves.
Implications
Professor Wilmut's team plan to take DNA from the skin or blood of a person with MND and implant it into a human egg from which the genetic material has been removed.
The egg would then be stimulated to develop into an embryo.
The scientists would remove cells from the embryo while it was still in the earliest stages of development, and study them to gain a better understanding of the disease.
The embryo would be allowed to develop for around six days, until it was at the blastocyst stage, before being destroyed.
If successful, Professor Wilmut said the technique could have profound implications for a range of other debilitating neurological and genetic disorders.
If the HFEA gives the go-ahead for the research, the Roslin team hope to begin work by around Easter next year.
Brian Dickie, director of research for the MND Association said: "We will support this research project, as long as we are satisfied that it is legal, has a sound scientific rationale and has the potential to bring us closer to treatments and/or a cure for MND."
However, the charity Life was opposed to the research.
A spokeswoman said: "Human beings should not be manufactured in order to benefit others and that's what research on human embryos consists of.
"For human embryos to be dissected and researched upon for any reason is wrong.
"We hope scientists will be able to discover treatments for all kind of conditions including motor neurone disease, but not through the deliberate manufacture and destruction of human embryos."
Dr Donald Bruce, director of the Society Religion and Technology Project of the Church of Scotland, said: "The aim of the Roslin proposal is laudable, to produce cells which exhibit motor neuron disease for studying the disease and perhaps developing future treatments, but it raises big ethical issues."
Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, from the National Institute for Medical Research, said: "This approach should allow us to study genetic disease without having to use humans as guinea pigs, or indeed, Guinea Pigs as humans."
Professor Alison Murdoch, Chair of British Fertility Society and Head of Newcastle Centre for Life, who had a successful therapeutic cloning license application earlier this year, said: "I support this therapeutic cloning application and hope they will be successful."
John Gillot, spokesperson for Genetic Interest Group, said: "This is clearly early stage research and a treatment is clearly not just around the corner, however, it is no less important for that."
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