Dolly’s creator gets licence for human cloning

The scientist who created Dolly the sheep, the world’s first cloned mammal, was granted a licence on Tuesday to clone human embryos for...

The scientist who created Dolly the sheep, the world’s first cloned mammal, was granted a licence on Tuesday to clone human embryos for medical research.

Professor Ian Wilmut, of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, plans to obtain stem cells for research into Motor Neurone Disease (MND) , a procedure that divides the medical world along ethical lines.

Britain’s cloning watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority , granted the licence on Tuesday to Wilmut, Dr Paul de Sousa from Edinburgh and Professor Christopher Shaw from King’s College London.

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It is only the second such licence granted in Britain.‘‘Our aim will be to generate stem cells purely for research purposes,’’ Wilmut said. ‘‘This is not reproductive cloning in any way.’’

Human reproductive cloning is illegal in Britain but therapeutic cloning, creating embryos as a source of stem cells to cure diseases, is allowed on an approved basis.

The British group said the stem cell technique would greatly enhance their understanding of MND and accelerate the discovery of new drugs.