So Prof Ian Wilmut predicts yet more medical wonders to be achieved as a result of his cloning of Dolly the sheep (How Dolly the sheep will help doctors beat the horrors of Parkinsons, News, December 4).
Scientific understanding leading to cures for diseases is of course to be welcomed, but there are ethical caveats.
Cloning of animals has led to immense suffering for many of the resulting clones, many of whom were born with malformed limbs, poor heart, kidney and lung function and were highly susceptible to infection. In other words many lived short and miserable lives.
Secondly, we are wary of being promised dream cures. Back in the mid-1990s, the scientists who were genetically engineering pigs assured us that within five years, pig organs would be ready for transplant into humans. Over 20 years later it hasn’t happened, but may well have raised unfair hopes in the minds of patients awaiting transplants, and their families. In the meantime the genetically engineered pig organs were transplanted into monkeys who suffered terrible effects and either died or had to be euthanised.
Advances in unravelling the human genome appear far more likely to bring long-term strategies to deal with degenerative illnesses.
In a wider sense, is it time to question whether longevity is a good in itself, or is it just a panacea for our fear of death?
Joyce D’Silva
Ambassador Emeritus
Compassion in World Farming
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