LONDON The Scottish scientist who cloned "Dolly" the sheep acknowledged to British MPs yesterday that human clones were possible in under two years but said he could not imagine why anyone would want to do it.
"I've hesitated to make predictions, but I'm sure if you really wanted to do it you could do it," Dr Ian Wilmut of Edinburgh's Roslin institute said in testimony to the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee.
Dr Wilmut, whose Roslin team last month announced the world's first successful cloning of an adult mammal - a healthy ewe - from the cell of another, said there was no reason why his technique could not be applied to humans. But he stressed it was the unanimous view of his research team, and of its companion pharmaceutical company, PPL Therapeutics, patent holder on the cloning technique, that human cloning would be offensive and should be banned.