Dolly researcher says every cloned animal is defective
Every cloned animal is genetically and physically defective, according to Ian Wilmut, one of the researchers from the Roslin research centre in Scotland who helped to clone Dolly the sheep. In 2001, Professor Wilmut had already warned that apparently healthy animal clones may have subtle genetic abnormalities with unknown consequences. 'The most likely outcome of any attempt to do that would include late abortions, birth of children who would die, and worst of all, the birth of children who would survive but would be abnormal,' said Professor Wilmut. Professor Wilmut says that cloned sheep and cattle can be excessively large, and mice can be born with placentas up to four times the normal size. He has conducted research into the behaviour of methyl molecules, which attach themselves to DNA in all cells and help to control many of its functions. He discovered that the methylation of the DNA in adult cells differs significantly from that of sperm and eggs. This means that when a nucleus is taken from a cell of an adult animal and injected into an egg, its DNA is configured in fundamentally different ways from that found in sperm. The Roslin research centre is one of many laboratories which have called for a moratorium on the use of cloning. 'Cloning is still a somewhat imprecise and variable procedure and this is the universal experience in terms of cloning mice, cattle, sheep and goats,' Professor Wilmut told the BBC. The comments came as the director of the company Clonaid, Brigitte Boisselier, announced that the first human clone is likely to be produced 'very soon'.