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Dolly’s False Legacy
There is more to cloning than mere science — and more to human character than scientists can discover in a person’s genes
The announcement in February 1997 of the birth of a sheep named Dolly,
an exact genetic replica of its mother, sparked a worldwide debate over
the moral and medical implications of cloning. Several U.S. states
and European countries have banned the cloning of human beings, yet South
Korean scientists claimed last month that they had already taken the first
step. In the following essay for TIME, embryologist Wilmut, who led the
team that brought Dolly to life at Scotland’s Roslin Institute, explains
why he believes the debate over cloning people has largely missed the point.
Overlooked in the arguments about the morality of artificially reproducing
life is the fact that, at present, cloning is a very inefficient procedure.
The incidence of death among fetuses and offspring produced by cloning
is much higher than it is through natural reproduction—roughly 10 times
as high as normal before birth and three times as high after birth in our
studies at Roslin. Distressing enough for those working with animals,
these failure rates surely render unthinkable the notion of applying such
treatment to humans.
Even if the technique were perfected, however, we must ask ourselves
what practical value whole-being cloning might have. What exactly would
be the difference between a “cloned” baby and a child born naturally—and
why would we want one?
The cloned child would be a genetically identical twin of the original,
and thus physically very similar—far more similar than a natural parent
and child. Human personality, however, emerges from both the effects of
the genes we inherit (nature) and environmental factors (nurture). The
two clones would develop distinct personalities, just as twins develop
unique identities. And because the copy would often be born in a different
family, cloned twins would be less alike in personality than natural identical
twins.
Why "copy" people in the first place? Couples unable to have children
might choose to have a copy of one of them rather than accept the intrusion
of genes from a donor. My wife and I have two children of our own and an
adopted child, but I find it helpful to consider what might have happened
in my own marriage if a copy of me had been made to overcome infertility.
My wife and I met in high school. How would she react to a physical copy
of the young man she fell in love with? How would any of us find living
with ourselves? Surely the older clone—I, in this case—would believe that
he understood how the copy should behave and so be even more likely than
the average father to impose expectations upon his child. Above all, how
would a teenager cope with looking at me, a balding, aging man, and seeing
the physical future ahead of him?
Each of us can imagine hypothetical families created by the introduction
of a cloned child—a copy of one partner in a homosexual relationship or
of a single parent, for example. What is missing in all this is consideration
of what’s in the interests of the cloned child. Because there is no form
of infertility that could be overcome only by cloning, I do not find these
proposals acceptable. My concerns are not on religious grounds or on the
basis of a perceived intrinsic ethical principle. Rather, my judgment is
that it would be difficult for families created in this way to provide
an appropriate environment for the child.
Cloning is also suggested as a means of bringing back a relative, usually
a child, killed tragically. Any parent can understand that wish,
but it must first be recognized that the copy would be a new baby and not
the lost child. Herein lies the difficulty, for the grieving parents are
seeking not a new baby but a return of the dead one. Since the original
would be fondly remembered as having particular talents and interests,
would not the parent expect the copy to be the same? It is possible, however,
that the copy would develop quite differently. Is it fair to the new child
to place it in a family with such unnatural expectations?
What if the lost child was very young? The shorter the life, the fewer
the expectations parents might place on the substitute, right? If a baby
dies within a few days of birth and there is no reason to think that death
was caused by an inherited defect, would it then be acceptable to make
a copy? Is it practical to frame legislation that would prevent copying
of adults or older children, but allow copying of infants? At what age
would a child be too old to be copied in the event of death?
Copying is also suggested as a means by which parents can have the
child of their dreams. Couples might choose to have a copy of a film
star, baseball player or scientist, depending on their interests. But because
personality is only partly the result of genetic inheritance, conflict
would be sure to arise if the cloned child failed to develop the same interests
as the original. What if the copy of Einstein shows no interest in science?
Or the football player turns to acting? Success also depends upon
fortune. What of the child who does not live up to the hopes and dreams
of the parent simply because of bad luck?
Ian Wilmut
in: TIME Magazine, JANUARY 11, 1999
by Ian Wilmut
