Controversial figure comes to UCI

Deirdre Newman

UC IRVINE -- The man who cloned the first animal from an adult cell

spoke on campus this week and encouraged the U.S. to open the floodgates

of stem cell research while acting quickly to impose regulations on

techniques as they are discovered.

Dr. Ian Wilmut, the leader of the team that produced Dolly -- the

sheep cloned from an adult cell -- spoke Tuesday night about current

cloning technology. About 130 people came to hear the Scottish scientist

delve into the delicate details of Dolly’s legacy.

While Wilmut said the potential of cloning humans is fraught with

philosophical dilemmas, he believes researchers should not be frightened

away or hampered from working with human embryos.

While a few UCI scientists are doing stem cell research or exploring

the idea, none is using human embryos.

“By doing research with human embryos, I think they should be able to

develop treatments for some very unpleasant, degenerative diseases,”

Wilmut said.

And he does not believe that harvesting and discarding embryos is

tantamount to murder, a controversial flash point in the growing debate.

“An important characteristic is that an embryo is not conscious or

aware because at the time we’re talking about, it has no nervous system.

So is it a potential human? Maybe. But in this important way, it’s not,”

Wilmut said.

Wilmut expressed shock that the U.S. does not regulate the clinical or

research production of embryos. He said he supports a bill by Sen. Dianne

Feinstein that would allow the use of cloned human embryos for research

into diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson’s disease, but ban human

reproductive cloning.

And Wilmut said people’s fears of human cloning are misguided. While

it would take another quantum scientific leap to get to the point where

humans could be cloned, Wilmut said if it happened a few times, “it

wouldn’t be the end of the world.”

But he stressed the importance of looking at the prospect from the

clone’s perspective.

“What I would ask parents -- could they treat a clone child the same

way they treat a child produced otherwise? I think no,” Wilmut said.

Wilmut also issued a caveat against genetic engineering -- trying to

improve genetic features such as skin color or eye color -- because these

characteristics are usually controlled by multiple genes, in contrast to

some degenerative diseases, which are caused by the malfunction of one

gene.

“So if you do it, it’s an experiment, and I don’t think you should

experiment with babies,” he said.

To illustrate the point, Wilmut said he is grappling with a minor

defect of his own -- a tremor in his hands. If he tried to fix it

genetically, it might alter his personality, he said.

“Would I rather be me and live with the tremor, or somebody different

and not have the tremor?” he asked.

While Wilmut wrestles with the dilemma, he holds out hope that

patients such as actors Christopher Reeve, who is paralyzed, and Michael

J. Fox, who has Parkinson’s disease, and others who share their

conditions can find relief for their ailments in their lifetimes.

“I think scientists are optimists,” Wilmut said.

* Deirdre Newman covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at o7 deirdre.newman@latimes.comf7 .