Dolly creator warns lives being lost by cloning laws

THE scientist who created Dolly the sheep has warned that patients are missing out on potentially life-saving treatment because medical research is too heavily restricted in the UK.

Professor Ian Wilmut, who now works at Edinburgh University, believes breakthroughs in treating devastating diseases such as Parkinson's are being stifled by fear of cloning technology.

He said exaggerated claims that research on embryonic stem cells could lead to the production of 'designer babies' mean it had become over-regulated in the UK.

Speaking at the launch of the Economic and Social Research Council's Genomics Policy and Research Forum in Edinburgh, Wilmut said patients were ultimately the people who were suffering.

"I really think that in this country we are at a great disadvantage by concentrating too much on the ethical and negative issues surrounding great science," he said.

"This puts patients who could benefit from treatments at a disadvantage."

Wilmut added: "We seem to have lost our excitement and confidence in science.

"Today we take for granted the benefits biotechnology provides such as the production of vaccines, but we are more afraid of the research that provides them.

"While it is right to ask real biological questions about the safety and efficacy of such procedures, this is exactly what the licences for embryonic research are for."

Wilmut came under criticism this year when he was granted a licence to use cloning technology to create embryonic stem cells for researching motor neurone disease.

He pointed to the recent announcement by scientists in Newcastle who had successfully managed to create an embryo by implanting the genetic material of a human embryo into the unfertilised egg from another women.

The research is aimed at treating a devastating hereditary condition in women caused by faulty material found in the cells of their eggs.

But anti-cloning campaigners said the research, which produced an embryo with effectively three parents, was another step towards creating designer babies.