Ian Wilmut

This book provides a timely and important discussion of the potential value of cloning and of the ethical choices that this radical new technology has raised, including the issues surrounding the current status of stem-cell research. As leader of the team that produced Dolly, the first animal to be cloned from an adult cell, Ian Wilmut has played a unique role both in the science of cloning and the ensuing international debate about its implications. He has testified before parliamentary and congressional committees in the UK, France and the US and given many public lectures on the subject, in addition to participating in numerous panel discussions on the uses of cloning. AFTER DOLLY: THE USES AND MISUSES OF HUMAN CLONING distils the essence of the current scientific and social policy discussions around these critically important issues and presents them in an understandable manner so the educated reader can have an informed opinion.

A timely investigation into the ethics, history, and potential of human cloning from Professor Ian Wilmut, who shocked scientists, ethicists, and the public in 1997 when his team unveiled Dolly that very special sheep who was cloned from a mammary cell. With award-winning science journalist Roger Highfield, Wilmut explains how Dolly launched a medical revolution in which cloning is now used to make stem cells that promise effective treatments for many major illnesses. Dolly's birth also unleashed an avalanche of speculation about the eventuality of cloning babies, which Wilmut strongly opposes. However, he does believe that scientists should one day be allowed to combine the cloning of human embryos with genetic modification to free families from serious hereditary disease. In effect, he is proposing the creation of genetically altered humans."