Ethical storm as scientist becomes first man to clone HIMSELF
By FIONA MACRAE - More by this author ยป Last updated at 17:46pm on 18th January
2008
Comments (38)
Breakthrough: Dr Samuel Wood has successfully cloned himself
A scientist has achieved a world first... by cloning himself.
In a breakthrough certain to provoke an ethical furore, Samuel Wood created
embryo copies of himself by placing his skin cells in a woman's egg.
The embryos were the first to be made from cells taken from adult humans.
Although they survived for only five days and were smaller than a pinhead, they
are seen as a milestone in the quest for treatments for diseases such as
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
But critics fear the technology could be exploited by mavericks to clone babies
and accused the scientists of reducing the miracle of human life to a factory
of spare parts.
Researchers from the Californian stem cell research company Stemagen employed
the same technique used to make Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned
mammal, to create the embryos.
They took eggs donated by young women having IVF and replaced genetic material
with DNA from the skin cells of two men.
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The eggs were then zapped with an electric current to induce fertilisation and
the creation of embryos.
Some of the skin cells came from Dr Wood, Stemagen's chief executive officer
and a leading fertility specialist, while the others came from another member
of staff.
The result was a handful of embryos, at least three of them clones of Dr Wood
and the other man.
Although all were destroyed in the process, the technique is seen as a vital
step in the creation of cloned embryos rich in stem cells, which are "master
cells" capable of becoming any type of body tissue.
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Original: Dolly the sheep paved the way for human cloning
Such stem cells could be invaluable in the study of diseases and the testing of
drugs.
They could ultimately be used to replace the damaged tissues behind diseases
from Alzheimer's to diabetes.
Stem cells taken from cloned embryos would be a perfect match to the patient,
whose body would not reject them.
Dr Wood, who has degrees in medicine, psychology, biochemistry and molecular
biophysics, called the research "a critical milestone" in the development of
treatments.
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Breakthrough: Scientists recently revealed they had cloned rhesus monkeys
The unmarried father of two, who is in his forties, is working on extracting
stem cells from such embryos - a process that inevitably leads to the death of
the embryo.
John Smeaton, of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: "We
have got scientists wandering around in an ethical wilderness, forgetting about
matters of justice relating to our fellow human beings.
"We have people creating human beings with the intention of destroying them.
That's appalling."
And the Vatican condemned the cloning of human embryos, calling it the "worst
type of exploitation of the human being".
"This ranks among the most morally illicit acts, ethically speaking," said
Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the
Vatican department that helps oversee the Church's position on bioethics
issues.
Stem cell experts gave the U.S. breakthrough, published in the journal Stem
Cells, a cautious welcome.
Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, of the Medical Research Council's National
Institute for Medical Research, said: "This is another step along what has
turned out to be a tortuous road.
"However, it is still a long way from the goal of achieving embryonic stem
cells."
U.S. researcher Professor Robert Lanza questioned the validity of the research
and said the embryos looked "very unhealthy".
Josephine Quintavalle, of the campaign group Comment On Reproductive Ethics,
said: "Human cloning is unethical, unsafe, and completely unnecessary.
"It is time that scientists started to put some brakes on."
Dr Calum MacKellar, of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, said the
creation and destruction of human embryos was "extremely offensive to millions
in the UK".
Although Dr Wood's team is the first to create human embryos from adult cells,
human embryos have been cloned before.
Scientists at Newcastle University created cloned human embryos in 2005 using
cells from embryos rather than adults, seen as less useful in creating
potential treatments.
British law says created embryos must be destroyed in 14 days and cannot be
implanted in a woman.
The news came as it was revealed that animal-human hybrid embryos will be
created in British laboratories within weeks after the research was allowed by
the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
Two teams have been licensed to make cow-human hybrids for research into
incurable diseases.
Scientists say they are needed because of a shortage of human eggs for
research.
The embryos would be more than 99 per cent human and would have to be destroyed
after two weeks.
But Mr Smeaton said: "It is creating a category of beings regarded as sub-human
who can be used as raw material to benefit other members of the human family.
"How wrong can something be before a scientist understands you cannot just do
it because of the perceived good for human beings."
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Add your comment | View all Comments (38)
38 people have commented on this story so far. Tell us what you think below.
Here's a sample of the latest comments published. You can click view all to
read all comments that readers have sent in.
How is this evil? Medical science moving on to pro-long and save human life?
That sounds alright to me. If you want to die in pain and suffering, off you
go, but for me, I'll take anything medical science can offer.
- Chris, Carshalton, England
Frankenstein's Monster in a laboratory near you.
- Jack Macguire, Ipswich Suffolk
Wow, this is brilliant! Hopefully in the future I will be able to have kids
without having to risk half my possessions to the mother!
- Howard, Manchester
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