Objective
This study is designed to provide an assessment of mammalian cloning technology, its possible risks and benefits, and how public policy might help steer its development in a manner which is both socially acceptable and economically useful.
The creation of the first cloned mammal, 'Dolly' the sheep, has been seen as a landmark, demonstrating both the power of science and the scale of public fears surrounding genetic engineering. This technical achievement has provoked controversy and stimulated major public policy debates in many countries, with the emphasis on the ethics of cloning humans. However, fear of human cloning has overshadowed the longer-term significance of this research, as it is in the field of animal biotechnology and in the development of new medical technologies that cloning could provide major benefits.
Public policy makers are therefore faced with a dilemma in balancing the need to maintain public confidence in biotechnology, by guaranteeing that research on cloning is ethical and socially acceptable, whilst at the same time ensuring that regulation will not inhibit its industrial exploitation.
The objectives of the study are therefore to:
1. Assess the scientific significance of the cloning of mammals and identify both short and long-term potential applications of the technique; 2. Make a comparative analysis of the public perception of mammalian cloning, the ethical problems raised, and the public policy response to these issues, in the UK and the Netherlands;
3. Analyse the relative success of different national approaches to mammalian cloning and suggest how public policy might be best used to socially manage the technology in Europe.
To meet these objectives the work programme will be composed of the following activities:
- A detailed literature review of research on mammalian cloning - Interviews with leading scientists and companies working on mammalian cloning.
- A short survey of European biotechnology firms working in fields related to cloning
- Detailed case studies of the public debate and regulation of cloning in the UK and Netherlands
The project will conclude by making an informed assessment of 1. the prospects, near-term applications and potential benefits of cloning; 2. the key ethical and social issues these developments are likely to raise; and 3. the strengths and weaknesses of different public policy approaches to this issue. Recommendations will be made for how policy in Europe might be improved to ensure that technologies based on mammalian cloning techniques might be effectively developed in a socially acceptable manner.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- social sciencespolitical sciencespolitical policiespublic policies
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologygenetic engineering
- social sciencessociologysocial issues
- natural sciencesbiological scienceszoologymammalogy
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Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
BN1 9RF Falmer - Brighton
United Kingdom