Ian Wilmut

Sir Ian Wilmut (7 July 1944 – 10 September 2023) was an English embryologist best known as the leader of the group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal, a sheep named Dolly, from fully differentiated adult mammary cells.

Quotes

• 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.
  • On human cloning, in "Dr. Frankenstein, I Presume?" by Andrew Ross in Salon February 1997).

• Any kind of manipulation with human embryos should be prohibited.
  • As quoted in "Dr. Frankenstein, I Presume?" by Andrew Ross in Salon (February 1997).

• 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.
  • On proposals for human cloning in an Interview on The NewsHour, PBS (8 January 1998).

• I think the initial reason why I became interested in farming is that I wanted to be outdoors. I've always enjoyed being outdoors. And so, I looked around and when I was at high school, probably 14 or so, my parents through friends arranged for me to be able to go work on farms on the weekend.
  • Interview at the Academy of Acheivement (23 May 1998).

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

External links

• Dolly Scientist Joins The University of Edinburgh
• "I didn't clone Dolly the sheep, says prof" The Daily Telegraph (8 March 2006)
• "Who really made Dolly? Tale of British triumph descends into scientists' squabble" in The Guardian (11 March 2006)
• "The right to the creation of clone Dolly" in The People's Daily (13 March 2006)
• "Cloning Scientist No Longer Supreme" in Genetic Crossroads (29 March 2006)
• "Call to strip Wilmut of knighthood" in The Scotsman (1 February 2008)