Ian Wilmut: Copying

Ian Wilmut is embryologist. Explore interesting quotes on copying.

Ian Wilmut: 10 quotes 0 likes

“I'd remind you that in these experiments so far, about one quarter of the lambs that were born alive died within a few days because they hadn't completed normal development. Now, what may be being suggested here is that copies of children would be being produced, and some of those would die soon after birth. So I think that for a clinician to be suggesting doing that is a quite appalling and sad thing for him to be suggesting.”

Ian Wilmut

On proposals for human cloning in an Interview on The NewsHour, PBS (8 January 1998) http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june98/cloning_1-8.html.

Children , Sadness , Birth , Thinking

“It is quite likely that it is possible, yes. But what we've said all along -- speaking for both the (Roslin) Institute and the PPL staff - is that we would find it ethically unacceptable to think of doing that. We can't think of a reason to do it. If there was a reason to copy a human being, we would do it, but there isn't.”

Ian Wilmut

On human cloning, in "Dr. Frankenstein, I Presume?" by Andrew Ross in Salon February 1997) http://web.archive.org/web/20000301033550/http://www.salon.com/feb97/news/news2970224.html.

Thinking

“Is this sort of thing which has been thought about beneficial? So that if you're asking the question, for example, "Is it appropriate to think of making a copy of a person?" You have to ask not only, "What is the benefit to the people who are asking for this to be done?" But also, "What's the impact on the child that's going to be produced?"”

Ian Wilmut

And that last bit I think often gets missed out.
Interview at the Academy of Achievement (23 May 1998).

People , Question , Thinking , Personality