The creator of Dolly the sheep, the first cloned animal in the world, called on Tuesday for clinical trials using stem cells on terminally ill patients.
In a statement to the Scottish newspaper The Scotsman, Professor Ian Wilmut explained, “If we only wait for all experiments to be conducted on animals, some patients will die in the meantime. Cloning, whether for scientific or therapeutic purposes, relies on the same techniques used in 1996 to create Dolly the sheep.”
He further elaborated, “I have met many people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. They are truly devastated as they face the slow end of their lives, a death that has been foretold. They would be very happy to participate in these trials.”
To clone for therapeutic purposes, researchers create embryos aged 5 to 7 days, containing hundreds of cells, then extract from the embryo and implant stem cells to produce all types of human cells.
Scientists believe that the properties of stem cells will naturally regenerate, allowing for the treatment of many genetic disorders. However, human stem cell treatment experiments have been banned due to ethical concerns.
H. ĐÀO
