Human embryo cloning plan sparks row

THE scientist who created Dolly the Sheep was yesterday granted a licence to clone human embryos in an attempt to find a cure for motor neurone disease.

Professor Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh and a team from King's College, London, plan to clone embryos to study the debilitating condition.

Opponents of the controversial practice condemned the decision of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to grant only the second licence of its kind in Britain.

But the Motor Neurone Disease Association and famous MND sufferer and Celtic footballing great Jimmy Johnstone said the research could benefit thousands of people battling the incurable disease.

Prof Wilmut made history by cloning Dolly the sheep in 1996. He plans to apply the same technique used to create the sheep cell nuclear replacement, also known as therapeutic cloning to develop human embryos.

It is only the second time the HFEA has given consent for therapeutic cloning research.

In August last year the authority gave scientists from the University of Newcastle the green light to clone human embryos to study incurable diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes.

Prof Wilmut said the aim was to generate stem cells for research purposes.

He said there will be no reproductive cloning with eggs not being allowed to grow beyond 14 days and the remaining cells destroyed.

The team plans to extract stem cells from patients with MND and implant them in unfertilised eggs to create cloned embryos.

The researchers will then harvest stem cells from the embryos to grow motor neurones, the long nerves which transmit electrical messages from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles.

Prof Wilmut and Dr Paul de Sousa, also from the Roslin Institute, and King's College researcher Professor Christopher Shaw hope their study will help develop drugs to treat MND.

Dolly the Sheep died in February 2003 after developing a progressive lung disease usually found in much older sheep.

A row broke out after the announcement as one expert claimed cloned embryo research should be outlawed until the United Nations introduces a global ban on reproductive human cloning.

Dr Donald Bruce, of the Church of Scotland's Society Religion and Technology Project, said the licence approval would have far-reaching implications.

"There is a significant danger that it would lead to the misuse of the technology by maverick scientists in some other country where there was little or no regulation, who wish to make and implant cloned embryos to create cloned babies, regardless of major risks and ethical objections," he said.

But Dr Brian Dickie, director of research at the Motor Neurone Disease Association, said the research should be supported as it has the potential to cure the debilitating disease.

Jimmy Johnstone, a hero of the Celtic's 1967 European Cup win, was among the first to welcome the HFEA's decision.

"To those who oppose this research, I would just say this: 'If one of your loved ones had this terrible disease and you knew that using stem cells could lead to a cure, what would you do?'," said Johnstone, 60.