Ian Wilmut, who supervised the team that cloned Dolly the sheep, is sad that human cloning hasn’t worked so far. But something else he said was unexpected and is interesting news: He believes that cell reprogramming—that is, reverting a cell from a differentiated state (e.g, blood, skin, bone, etc.) to an embryonic stem cell state will occur before it cloning can be accomplished in humans. Leaving aside for the moment whether embryonic stem cells actually offer the “best hope,” about which the jury is still out, if Wilmut is prophetic and a way is found to obtain pluripotent stem cells ethically and without treating human life like a crop—President Bush should receive the credit. His funding restrictions kept the moral value of nascent human life on the table. It caused scientists to search diligently for “alternative” methods,” such as reprogramming and ANT. Had Bush gone along with the tide, I believe the federal government would be funding SCNT cloning by now and the importance of nascent human life would have long been swept away.
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