Cloning expert calls on MPs to back hybrid embryos work

Published on Wednesday 26 March 2008 21:23

A LEADING stem-cell researcher yesterday joined calls for MPs to support potentially life-saving work using animal-human hybrid embryos.

Sir Ian Wilmut, who led the team which created the clone Dolly the sheep, said he respected the views of religious figures such as Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, who has condemned the use of animal-human embryos in research.

But he said such embryos were nothing more than a tiny bundle of cells and, as such, were far from being a living human.

Sir Ian also said some of the discussion around the work had described it "very badly" and incorrectly suggested human and animal DNA would be mixed.

His comments came after Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, agreed to give Labour MPs a free vote on the most controversial sections of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, including that covering hybrid research.

Sir Ian, director of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Edinburgh, had, at one stage, considered applying for a licence to conduct hybrid embryo research. But his team is now exploring other ways of creating stem cells to study serious conditions such as motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis.

Despite this, Sir Ian said that scientists should have the opportunity to use hybrid embryos for research on inherited diseases, and called on MPs to back the Bill.

He added: "I respect completely (Cardinal O'Brien's] right to a difference of opinion and I understand he finds these suggestions deeply offensive.

"But to me, the key thing about humans is our consciousness and our ability to communicate and so on.

"The human embryos people are working with are smaller than a grain of sand. You need a microscope to see them. They are weeks from the stage where there would be a nervous system and the ability to be aware.

"To me, and I suspect the majority of people in 21st century Britain, a human being is someone who is aware.

The fundamental thing is that (the hybrid embryo] is not a human being."

However, a spokesman for the Scottish Catholic Church said: "At one point, we were all just a small bundle of cells.

"At that stage, while not recognisably human, these cells are still human life."

HARVESTING STEM CELLS

SCIENTISTS say hybrid embryos are needed to tackle a major shortage of human eggs to create stem cells for research.

They point out that in hybrid embryos, genetic material is removed from animal eggs and replaced with human DNA, making them 99.9 per cent human.

However, pro-life campaigners and the Catholic Church have condemned such research.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of Scotland's Catholics, said the experiments were of "Frankenstein proportion".

Despite this, two teams of scientists – in London and Newcastle – have already been awarded special licences to conduct hybrid research.

It is hoped that a ready supply of stem cells will speed up new treatments for serious diseases.