It's not difficult to find the reactions of leading scientists and politicians to Dr Seed's plan to clone a human in 1998. Here are some important ones:
“He’s just a silly old man" Professor Ian Wilmut, Scientist who created Dolly the Sheep, 1998
“This week, like many Americans, I learned the profoundly troubling news that a member of the scientific community is actually laying plans to clone a human being. Personally, I believe that human cloning raises deep concerns. We know it's possible for some to ignore the consensus of their colleagues and proceed without regard for our common values.”
Bill Clinton 10 January, 1998.
“My first reaction here is somebody who is trying to make a quick buck off of self-advertising”
Lord Winston, ‘Father’ of IVF technology, 1998.
“I think his science is no better than his theology” Thomas Murray, a member of the National Bioethics Committee, 1998.
Although Dr Seed was very easy to discredit, he was extremely effective in harnessing the attention of the scientific community and the public world wide. Having been widely condemned for his claims, he quickly faded from the limelight. But I think he fuelled the controversy of producing the first human clone. He paved the way for the weird and the wonderful out there to quietly go about their attempts to produce, or at least talk about their attempts in reproductive cloning. I'm going to be exploring who else is out there in the field of reproductive cloning, who's doing it, where are they, and are they pursuing a moral and ethical approach to it. Stay tuned.....
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