Winston warns of major problems if humans cloned

By ANNE BESTON

Genetic science which targets sperm cells could radically change the technology of genetic modification, according to fertility expert Professor Lord Robert Winston.

Addressing a packed public lecture in Auckland yesterday, Lord Winston said reproductive technology which had produced transgenic animals was "inefficient" and the number of viable, or healthy, foetuses produced was small.

Transgenic animals are those which have been genetically modified either by adding a gene from another species or by "knocking out" a gene the animal would normally have.

In New Zealand, an experiment to genetically modify calf foetuses at AgResearch's Ruakura site produced just four healthy transgenic calves from more than 50 embryos.

But Lord Winston said that if the technology improved, for instance by targeting sperm cells inside the testes before human development took place, humankind might eventually have to grapple with the dilemma of producing designer babies.

"If you could make transgenic technology easy, that has very serious ramifications," he told his audience at the University of Auckland School of Medicine.

"If we could change the genetics of a disease ... why shouldn't we do it?

"The problem is, in improving the human condition you are actually trying to enhance a human genetically. Mistakes are likely to be irreversible."

Lord Winston said scientists who were trying to produce a human clone were taking a huge risk.

"Anyone who decides to try to clone a human being will come to a colossal problem if it produces an abnormal baby.

"There may be foolish people who want to try, but much more attention should be paid to the risks of the technology.

"It's one thing to clone animals but cloning humans is quite another issue."

It was reported yesterday that a maverick Italian fertility expert, Professor Severino Antinori, will reveal details this week of his programme to implant 200 women with cloned embryos.

He is expected to begin the work in November and has said that because of the controversy surrounding it, he might do the experiment in a secret laboratory or even on board a ship coasting through neutral waters.

Eight Britons are believed to be among the 200 couples hoping to have a child using cloning.

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