- Several laboratories are now engaged
in a race to clone a human being, controversial scientist Dr Richard Seed
said on Tuesday.
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- Dr Seed, who is in London for a conference
on reproductive ethics, predicted the first clone would be announced within
two years.
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- "I know of one other clinic that
is racing to produce the first human clone and I suspect there are two
or three others," he told the BBC. "I don't want to name any
of them."
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- Dr Seed sparked international outrage
in 1998 when he announced his intention to make a copy of himself. He has
now said that his wife Gloria will be the first subject to be cloned -
and she will also bear the child.
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- He said he and his wife were prepared
to carry the risks that would be associated with such a novel procedure.
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- Technical risks
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- "It hasn't been done before so,
for the first one, there is always going to be some technical risk. It
can be reduced, in my opinion, to less than one in ten thousand by using
modern medical genetic techniques."
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- Harvard-educated Seed, who has a PhD
in nuclear physics and expertise in infertility treatment, believes that
cloning is a legitimate solution for couples who have reproductive problems.
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- He said cloning should also be accepted
because of the intellectual challenge it represented.
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- "It will launch an entirely new
field of research into life processes. This challenge is absolutely irresistible
and this will result in the understanding of life," he said.
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- "The understanding of life is the
intellectual challenge of the third millennium."
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- Cloning ban
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- Many nations around the world already
have legislation to outlaw reproductive cloning. However, many scientists
believe the technology will find a use, most probably in transplant medicine.
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- Two UK advisory bodies have urged the
government to allow the cloning of early-stage human embryos for research.
Allied to other emerging cell technologies, they said it might be possible
to use this limited form of cloning to grow replacement tissue in laboratories.
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- This would overcome many of the problems
of rejection which currently bedevil transplant surgery.
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- But Dr Seed has attacked this approach.
"What is more ethical?" he asked recently. "To clone a human
being to allow it to grow to full adulthood or to clone a human being in
order to harvest its organs."
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- Science and philosophy
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- His views on cloning have been sought
for a conference on the subject at the Royal Society.
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- Being Human - the science and philosophy
of cloning has been organised by CORE (Comment on Reproductive Ethics).
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- Other speakers will include Baroness
O'Neill from the UK Government's Human Genetics Advisory Commission (HGAC)
and embryologist Dr Anne McLaren who sits on the Human Fertilisation and
Embryology Authority (HFEA).
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- It was the HGAC and the HFEA that recommended
therapeutic cloning to the UK Government as an acceptable use of the technology
on humans.
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