"Sir Ian Wilmut", Order of the British Empire/OBE Royal Society/FRS FMedSci FRSE is an English embryologist and Chair of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known as the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic cell, a Finnish Dorset (sheep)/Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly (sheep)/Dolly. He was granted an OBE in 1999 for services to embryo development. In December 2007 it was announced that he would be Knight Bachelor/knighted in the New Year Honours 2008/2008 New Year Honours.

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So far, no scientist has been able to specifically turn any adult stem cell population into good populations of motor-neuron cells. Remember that ALS patients tend to die within four years. Opponents of therapeutic cloning need to remember that we do not have time to waste.

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[Professor Wilmut explained that he regularly phones Jinky.] When a friend is ill, you normally ask 'How are you?' But with ALS, I have learned not to do that. When I last asked Jimmy, he said ... He had already lost his legs. Just think for a moment about the implications of that.

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I am sure that they did make good steps forward and derive cell lines.

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I think now to contemplate using our present technique with humans would be quite inhuman.

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Successful cloning of an increasing number of species confirms the general impression that it would be possible to clone any mammalian species, including humans.

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We would welcome any rules for an international agreement of any kind to prohibit this work. I think you shouldn't underestimate the difficulties of this research.

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I personally have still not heard a potential use of this technique, to produce a new person, that I would find ethically acceptable, ... ...on that basis, I hope that you're wrong.

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Potentially many thousands of animals.

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It is a key component of the international effort to co-operate in research rather than compete.

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