Overseas Feature
Human cloning seen as inevitable
By Sonia Kolesnikov,
UPI Business Correspondent
SINGAPORE, (UPI) -- Human cloning will happenat some stage in the future and it would be naïve to thinkotherwise, the British cloning expert who helped create Dollythe sheep said recently.
"I believe someone will be cloned atsome stage in the future," Alan Colman told a meeting ofthe Foreign Correspondent Association. "If they are cloned,does this mean I should feel an absolute personal responsibility?Of course, you will feel somewhat responsible, but does this meanI should feel guilty, and the answer I feel, is no."
Colman, who helped to clone Dolly from anadult cell in 1997 amid much controversy, said he personally isopposed to human cloning.
"In my view, there is no compellingreason why anyone should have the right to (clone an) individual,"Colman said. He pointed out that for Dolly the sheep, 430 eggshad to be used. They resulted in seven pregnancies with the onlysuccessful one leading to Dolly. "That's a huge attritionrate," he noted, adding that he viewed the idea of humancloning as unethical.
"When you go from one species to another,the whole learning process starts again," he explained. "Sohowever successful you are with cows and pigs, it doesn't meanthat when you apply the same technique to human you get the samesuccess, you don't."
Colman said he did not know where humancloning eventually would take place. However, "there arepoor people that can be exploited to give eggs and some scientistssufficiently unscrupulous to exploit them." He also saidhe does not expect Italian doctor Severino Antinori will succeedin his project to clone a human. Antinori has announced plansto use cloning technology to help infertile couples have children.
"I don't think he can do it,"Colman said. "But no doubt, there are some teams around theworld that if paid enough will do it, and I think it would benaïve to think it wouldn't happen ... There are people inmy view that have a lot of money and are narcissists enough tobankroll such project."
Defending his own cloning research, whichwas done with therapeutic applications in mind, Colman said manyother scientific issues -- such as kidney transplantation or invitro fertilization -- were seen originally by some as abhorrent,but public opinion has changed with time.
"What is unacceptable at one pointit time can rapidly become acceptable later when it seems to dogood. So you have to be careful when you commenting on sciencenot to go over the top and reflect on what might happen in yearsto come if it's properly applied," he noted.
Colman said he now is mainly doing researchon the use of stem cells as a potential diabetes cure. "I'mpassionate about solving diabetes. You have to move on. Cloninganimal, I've done that, been there. Want to be somewhere else,"he said. He moved to Singapore earlier this year to join the Australian-Singaporeanstem cell research group ES Cell International as chief scientist.
Singapore has been promoting biomedicalsciences aggressively as a new pillar of its economy, and recentlyhas announced new rules on human stem cell research, very similarto those in the United Kingdom. In June, a Singapore panel advisingthe government on the ethics of its biotechnology recommendeda total ban on human cloning, but said embryos less than 14 daysold could be used in stem-cell research.
Colman said his decision to leave the UnitedKingdom and his previous company, the Scottish firm PPL Therapeutic-- with whom he had been for 14 years -- partly reflected hisdifficulties in raising the necessary funds for his diabetes research,which could cost about $47 million.
"I approached ES Cell, then I had todecide whether to move to Singapore or Melbourne, but the enthusiasmfor developing and commercializing the type of sciences I'm interestedin is so great here, that it was an easy decision to make,"he said.
Colman also noted the first human embryonicstem cells were made in Singapore in 1994 in an unpublished researcheffort. "This is a good track record (for Singapore),"he said, but acknowledged raising the necessary funds for hisresearch is proving difficult, mainly because of the worldwideslump in biotechnology investments this year.
For the time being, he said, Singapore mustimport scientists to realize its biotechnology dream. Even thoughthe level of scientific education is high, he said, the pool oftalent still is very small due to the population size. He indicatednegotiations are ongoing to bring over a U.S. research team thatspecializes in diabetes.