Hello Dolly, goodbye sanity

Theoretically, the technology which created Dolly can be refined to recreate near-perfect copies of living humans or the recently dead who had been frozen correctly. But only with living cells. Dr. Wilmut said of human cloning: "There is no reason in principle why you couldn't do it. But all of us would find that offensive." Another scientist, D. Ronald Munson, an American ethicist, implied that laws banning human embryo manipulation through genetic engineering would be useless as "the technology is not policeable". Unlike atom-smashing super-colliders which require gigantic laboratories or installations, reproductive biology is like a boutique process which he described as "fundamentally quite simple".

This is where Dr. Wilmut's achievement and the benefits it can bring are in danger of running up against an ethical wall. The combination, of the lay public engaging in monster talk and scientists advising caution in the next steps in reproductive biology research, could result in funding cuts and all sorts of legal and ethical restrictions. That would be a tragedy, as Dolly and her type can bring a quantum leap in mass-producing pharmacologically useful proteins. In other words, as highly efficient chemical factories.

Later research can yield disease-resistant compounds. At any rate, Dolly has become a celebrity only because this was a large animal being cloned, something thought impossible. British molecular biologist John Gurdon had cloned a frog before. Since ancient times, the selective breeding of plants and animals to improve the stock had been going on unheralded, but that was still genetic manipulation as it is now understood.

That said, the urging of scientists, theologians and politicians to take a cold, hard look at the morality of cloning higher-order mammals should be given a respectful hearing. Nobody is about to, or wants to, play God but it is safer not to assume too much. U.S. President Bill Clinton's ordering up of a study on the implications of cloning can, it is hoped, contribute to a better understanding. All that is different from the lurid imaginings, which can only drive dolly and her human creators over the cliff.

-- The Straits Times, Singapore