December 29, 2001	Saturday	Shawwal 13, 1422

LONDON: Religious groups are appalled by it, some scientists think it is inevitable and doctors believe the technology will hasten the search for new methods to treat incurable illnesses.

Like it or not, cloning is an issue set to dominate the political agenda, scientific research, newspaper headlines and dinner party conversations for the foreseeable future.

Whether it is reproductive cloning to enable the infertile to become parents or therapeutic cloning to create embryos so scientists can mine them for stem cells, the master cells of the body, few issues are as emotive.

The word conjures up images of armies of identical people, or desperate couples or partners wanting to replicate lost loved ones. News that US biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) had recently cloned a human embryo was met with outrage, skepticism and scientific consensus that it was premature to claim such an achievement.

The tragic events of Sept 11 put human cloning and the rapid pace of science back in the headlines and brought home the point that it is probably a question of when, not if.

“I think it is inevitable, unfortunately. I give it about five years,” said Alan Coleman of PPL Therapeutics, the Scottish firm that helped to create Dolly, the cloned sheep, in 1996.

INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGE: ACT produced one six-cell embryo which is a long way from even a blastocyst, a cluster of 100-150 cells from which stem cells can be extracted.

Coleman believes ACT was ill-advised to release the information and said it confirms the difficulty of transferring animal work to humans.

ACT said it was not trying to clone a human but to produce stem cells to cure diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, cancer and AIDS.

Other researchers including Italian fertility specialist Severino Antinori, who helped a 62-year-old woman become a mother, and American scientist Dr Richard Seed have both publicly expressed their desire to clone a human.

Coleman and many other scientists say that apart from any other moral or ethical issues, it is simply too dangerous because of the risk of miscarriage and creating deformed foetuses.

It took many unsuccessful attempts before sheep, cattle, mice, pigs and goats were cloned successfully.

STILL A LONG WAY AWAY: Other scientists, including Dr Ann McLaren of the Wellcome CRC Institute in Cambridge, England, believe human reproductive cloning is still a long way away because of the safety concerns.

David King, of the independent monitoring group GeneWatch UK, believes a global ban on reproductive cloning will be in force before scientists overcome the technical challenges.—Reuters