Speaking with poise and sensitivity to a capacity crowd as part of the chancellor's Science Seminar Series, Ian Wilmut expressed both his hope and concern for the future of human and animal cloning.
"We are at the beginning of an exciting era in biology and genetics, but we need a period of ambitious research before we practically apply these procedures," he said.
Wilmut's efforts to clone Dolly, the first animal created through the use of a cell from an adult animal, have revolutionized genetics and prompted an international debate of medical ethics.
Despite his contributions to the cloning process, Wilmut warned against cloning humans with current genetic technology.
"I think we pay far too much attention to publicists who claim we will clone a child in a number of months because I believe this would be a grossly irresponsible thing to do," he said.
Wilmut said he is concerned by the potential psychological burdens cloned children could face, as they could be subject to unreasonable expectations stemming from their unique genetic background.
"I think you should want a child as an individual, and if you say, 'I want you to be a certain way,' then I don't think that's a reasonable pressure," he said.
Although he does not support human cloning, Wilmut said the cloning of animals has great potential for genetic mapping and organ transplantation in humans.
He also said he supports the use of human embryonic stem cells for cloning, despite some ethical concerns about using this type of cell.
