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5 June 2006
The Scottish Council on Human Bioethics indicated, today, that the proposal by Prof. Ian Wilmut to create babies that are both cloned and genetically altered to prevent serious hereditary disease was very concerning and a new step down the road to eugenics.
Dr. Calum MacKellar, Director of Research of the SCHB, indicated that he was "surprised about the change of mind of Prof. Ian Wilmut who used to be totally opposed to creating babies through the cloning procedure" adding "I do not understand on what ethical principles he is constructing his ever changing views."
Indeed, in his forthcoming book After Dolly, serialised today, Prof. Wilmut argues that, when the techniques are shown to be safe, society should consider cloning with genetic modification to prevent the birth of babies with serious diseases.
Prof Wilmut writes in his book: "Doctors should be able to offer at-risk couples the opportunity to conceive with IVF methods, break down the resulting embryos into cells, correct any serious genetic defects in these cells then clone demonstrably healthy cells to create a new embryo that can be implanted to start a pregnancy."
The resulting child would be the identical twin of the original embryo but would have the diseased gene corrected in every one of its cells. The original embryo would be destroyed.
In this regard, Dr. MacKellar indicated that "How will one show the techniques to be safe? This is especially questionable given that Ian Wilmut no longer seems concerned to demonstrate the feasibility of his proposals based on prior animal studies."
The Scottish Council on Human Bioethics is also concerned that the procedure would be another step down the road to eugenics (generally improving the human race) but without sufficient discussion taking place about the consequences of such an important development for society.