THE pioneering British scientist who created the first clone of an adult animal admitted for the first time yesterday that the technique could be applied to humans.
Dr Ian Wilmut said a human embryo produced using the same methods, could be used to treat cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Dr Wilmut ruled out copying a human. But he said an adult human cell could be fused with an egg to create an embryo in the same way as animals like Dolly the sheep are "grown". Key cells could then be extracted from the embryo and used to treat human diseases. During the work the embryo would die.
The admission will fuel the debate over the ethics of Dr Wilmut's work which reached a peak yesterday when the British Nobel Peace Prize-winning physicist Joseph Rotblat warned that his experiments represented science out of control. Such sensitive genetic engineering could result in "a means of mass destruction", he warned.
Speaking at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Dr Wilmut conceded that fusing a cell from a human adult with an egg and growing an embryo to be used to treat humans would "raise issues that would have to be considered by biologists and ethics people". But he said he was "comfortable" with the technique which would be legal under human embryology legislation.
"We know we can use this method to `grow' animals like Dolly and there is no practical reason why we could not do it with humans. The only difference would be that with humans you would be dealing with an embryo and would certainly not proceed as far as birth."
The method could be used to treat some life-threatening conditions, he said. If a man had bone marrow problems, for example, a cell could be extracted from his body and fused with an egg which would then be fertilised. Fresh bone-marrow cells could be extracted from the resulting embryo and put back into his body. Healthy bone-marrow would then grow.
Dr Wilmut's admission came as politicians and scientists expressed new doubts over the ethics of his work. President Clinton called for a US medical committee to examine the implications of the Edinburgh breakthrough and Prof Rotblat argued that an international ethical committee should be set up to monitor future developments. He said: "I feel, however unpleasant it may be for scientists, that science may somehow have to be controlled."
Dr Wilmut welcomed President Clinton's intervention and Prof Rotblat's suggestions but expressed irritation at the continuing "atmosphere of criticism" surrounding his success. Here we have a remarkable achievement - a world first - and there are some people who seem to make a living out of spreading angst.
"If we hadn't made the breakthrough somebody else would; the technology is out there. It is now up to society to decide how it should be used and we welcome any discussion of these matters," said Dr Wilmut.
Dr Wilmut reaffirmed his view that cloning a human would be technically difficult and ethically unacceptable. "Producing a cloned baby from a live adult is morally repugnant and illegal."
His discovery would enable scientists to get closer than ever to finding a cure for human and animal diseases - including cancer, cystic fibrosis, emphysema, BSE and CJD. As the biological and ethic arguments raged, one undisputed fact emerged yesterday. Dr Wilmut revealed that the world's first cloned animal was named after singer Dolly Parton, because the cell used to create her came from the "impressive mammaries" of another sheep.