'Dolly' scientist's license to clone human embryos draws criticism

Published: 2005-02-09

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Scottish scientist's plan to clone and then destroy embryos from the cells of patients with motor neuron diseases represents an example of "inherently bad medicine" that should never be permitted, according to the director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. In a Feb. 9 telephone interview, Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk criticized the Feb. 8 decision of the British Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority to grant Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh, Scotland, and other scientists a license to conduct therapeutic cloning for research into diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and progressive muscular atrophy. As with any research leading to the destruction of human embryos, "it's a direct exploitation of the weak by the powerful, and that's never acceptable in a civilized society," Father Pacholczyk told Catholic News Service. "It should never be sanctioned." Wilmut, who led the team that cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996, said his team and researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London planned to extract stem cells from patients with motor neuron disease and clone them in order to test various treatment options. "Our aim will be to generate stem cells purely for research purposes," Wilmut told the BBC. "The eggs we use will not be allowed to grow beyond 14 days. Once the stem cells are removed for cell culture, the remaining cells will be destroyed."

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