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Society, Religion and Technology Project Church of Scotland Looking at the ethics of technology for a New Millennium

Tel. (this week only) 0131-556 9310 [normally 0131-240 2250], Fax 0131-240 2239, Email: srtp@srtp.org.uk http://www.srtp.org.uk or Church of Scotland Press Office 0131- 240 2243

"Dolly the cloned sheep has arthritis, but don’t jump to hasty conclusions to condemn animal cloning," says Dr Donald Bruce, Director of Society Religion and Technology Project of the Church of Scotland. Dr Bruce chairs an expert working group on the ethics of animal and crop genetic engineering and co-edited "Engineering Genesis", which examined the ethics and welfare of animal cloning. He is also an external member of the ethical committee of PPL Therapeutics.

"This may be a signficant indicator about cloning but a single case proves nothing scientifically at this stage. It signals the need now for a wider study of animal cloning and welfare."

Since Dolly was cloned from cells from a six year old ewe, from the start, we asked how old she was. Is she now 5½ or 11½? She had shorter chromosome ends (telomers) which suggested that she might age faster than usual, but some cloned animals have longer telomers, as if they were "younger". So overall there is no consistent picture. Up to now Dolly showed no signs of ageing, but getting a disease associated with old age like arthritis would be the sort of symptom to look for.

One case proves nothing, however. We need to stand back and get a wider picture by looking at other early cloned animals at Roslin, PPL and overseas. Numbers are small and most are still quite young. At present there are no signs of arthritis in sheep up to 4 years old at Roslin’s neighbour PPL Therapeutics. Cloned cattle in the USA are reported healthy at a similar age. Most of the well publicised problems with cloned animals have happened during pregnancy, at birth or in the weeks soon after birth. Even then, these effects are variable. PPL’s several litters of cloned pigs in the USA had no early deaths at all, and show better health than cloned sheep or cattle.

The key ethical issue is what welfare problems with animal cloning would make it unacceptable? From the first cloned sheep Megan and Morag in 1996, SRT’s View on Animal Cloning has been that it would be ethically unacceptable if it were just to replicate farm animals for commercial food production - the mass production idea taken too far. But Roslin’s original purpose for cloning - as a tool for genetic modification for medical purposes - could be acceptable, for example to make pharmaceutical proteins in sheep’s milk, pig organs for human transplant, or for animal diseases.

But this was always subject to acceptable animal welfare. We agree with Government's 1998 Farm Animal Welfare Council report which urged a moratorium on commercial use of animal cloning until the welfare are resolved. In 1997 SRT called for a special study into animal cloning welfare problems and repeated this in 1998. If they could be resolved, OK, if it looked unlikely then cloning would no longer be justified, on ethical grounds. This point has been reached simply by finding arthritis in Dolly. We repeat the need for Government funding of an independent study into the welfare aspects of animal cloning, drawing on data from all over the world, and taking the whole lifetime of cloned animals into account. Only them will we know if Dolly’s arthritis is an exception or the rule for cloning. It certainly shows the folly of anyone attempting to clone human beings.

Science is easily abused for political ends. Just as Mr Gummer’s infamous BSE hamburger stunt tried to make premature and wrong reassurances, so Dolly's arthritis should not be used by animal rights groups to raise premature alarms that animal cloning should already be condemned. This may be a real effect, but let the science sort it out, not political campaigning.

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