‘We’ve always had to struggle,’ continued Thomas. ‘These days people will argue that our funding be cut in order to finance what they see as the more pressing needs of medicine. We must resist them. Children are our future, our fulfilment; there is no more pressing need in medicine than that of a woman who wants to conceive but cannot. We can make it happen and we must be allowed to continue to make it happen.’
The professor sat down to warm applause, his place at the lectern being taken by a tall distinguished-looking man with close-cropped grey hair and silver-framed spectacles. Gordon thought that he looked American and was proved right when the speaker was introduced as Professor Richard Meyer from the University of California at Los Angeles.
‘Carwyn has spoken eloquently of the past,’ began Meyer. ‘It’s my job to say a little about the future of IVF. We’ve come a long way from the time when we mixed ova and sperm, injected the mixture and hoped for the best. The technique has become more and more refined, multiple births are no longer as prevalent as they used to be, and the specificity of ICSI is becoming almost common place in many labs. The use of helper cells has increased our success rate and we are able to treat more and more difficult cases with an ever-growing confidence in our ability. But there is one challenge on our horizon however, Ladies and Gentlemen and one we will all have to face up to sooner or later. This is the challenge of human cloning. The public’s imagination has been captured by the subject and the technological advances we are making in the lab are bringing us ever closer to making it possible in the foreseeable future. There will undoubtedly be a demand for it. We must think about our response.’
A murmur ran round the room and Meyer looked over his glasses at his audience.
‘You speak as if human cloning is inevitable,’ said a German voice from among the delegates.
‘I believe it is,’ replied Meyer bluntly. ‘I’ve always found the maxim, “if it can be done it will be done”, to be a safe bet in science.’
‘Surely it needn’t be if there’s a will to stop it,’ said an English woman who announced herself as, Dr Linda Moore from Cambridge.
Meyer shook his head and said, ‘Even then, someone somewhere will do it. Be sure of that.’
‘Isn’t this all rather academic anyway,’ said someone else. ‘We can’t do it yet: the technology doesn’t exist.’
‘We’re not that far off,’ said Meyer, ‘so it’s as well to be prepared, don’t you think? Our development of ICSI technology will be very relevant to human cloning. You could say we’re becoming expert in the required techniques without even realising it.’
‘But why? What’s the point of it all?’ asked a man in the front row. ‘We’ll never be able to clone a person in the true sense of the word, in terms of character and personality; the best we can ever hope to do is produce a baby with a clean sheet for a mind, just like any other baby. The child may grow up to look exactly like the person he or she was cloned from but its mind will comprise its own ideas and experiences not anyone else’s.’
‘But the potential is there,’ said the Swedish woman Gordon had spoken to earlier. ‘Clone a genius and you’ll get a genius.’
‘I think Dr Linnstrom has just put her finger on it,’ said Meyer with a smile. ‘Applied selectively, human cloning could enrich society by ensuring that our finest minds remain with us always.’
‘Well, I’m against it. It wouldn’t stop there and we all know it. Most people will consider themselves unique in some way or other and no doubt worthy of preserving. We’ll be inundated with requests if we don’t do something to regulate it now.’
There was a general murmur of agreement before a lady in the row in front of Gordon stood up and identified herself as Dr Maisie Land from Trinity College Dublin. She said, ‘But aren’t we all forgetting that human cloning technology could make a tremendous impact in transplant surgery?’
‘So I keep hearing,’ said Meyer testily, ‘perhaps you’d care to explain how, Doctor?’
A hush fell over the room, caused by the American’s change of tone. Everyone looked to the woman who had attracted his aggression; she herself was obviously embarrassed and bemused. ‘Surely it’s obvious, Professor, that organs taken from a clone of an individual would be a perfect match for that individual.’
‘Of course, but how do you clone an organ, Doctor?’
Maisie Lang became even more embarrassed: Gordon was close enough to see her hands tremble. ‘Well, it’s not exactly my field,’ she said, ‘but I imagine some sort of cell culture might be...’
The American started shaking his head long before she had finished her sentence. ‘Can’t be done,’ he said. ‘To obtain a living kidney, liver, heart or whatever, you need a living human being. That means you start out with a cloned healthy baby so are you telling me that you would consider cutting up live babies to provide spare parts, Doctor? I think not. Human cloning when it starts, will give you human babies, ladies and gentlemen, nothing else, no supermarket shelves with livers and kidneys, just bonnie, bouncing babies.’
‘Food for thought,’ said Carwyn Thomas, getting to his feet again, obviously pleased that the general level of interest in the opening session boded well for a lively symposium.
Fourteen
Professor Thomas noticed Gordon’s presence for the first time during the buffet lunch and looked surprised. ‘Dr Gordon! You decided to come after all? I’m delighted.’
‘I’ve taken a few days off,’ Gordon told him. ‘I thought I’d take you up on your kind invitation. It seems to have got off to a cracking start.’
‘You can say that again,’ smiled Thomas. ‘Anything to do with human cloning always arouses strong emotions in people.’
‘How about you?’ asked Gordon as he quickly put a few pieces of salad on a plate and joined Thomas as he moved away from the table to stand by a window.
‘Me too,’ smiled Thomas.
‘For or against?’
‘For, in the long run,’ said Thomas. ‘But then it’s always pointless to stand in the way of progress. I think one has to accept that it’s going to happen, whether one likes it or not. We must simply do our best to see that it’s well controlled and regulated when it does. But, as Meyer pointed out, a successful cloning at the moment can only result in the birth of a baby, with all the moral and ethical issues that that would raise.’
‘You said, “at the moment”, does that mean things might change in the future?’ asked Gordon.
‘Of course, almost certainly, once we understand the true nature of cell differentiation — by that I mean what makes cells decide to become a liver or a lung or whatever. The idea of being able to grow human organs from single cells is a very attractive one. It could solve so many problems, not least the continual search for suitable donor organs.’
‘How close are we to being able to do that?’
‘Quite a long way off, but there’s a lot of research being carried out on it so who knows? Someone may make the breakthrough.’
‘Is this an area of research that you’re personally involved in?’ asked Gordon.
Thomas shook his head. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I’m just a simple obstetrician at heart; I dabble at being a scientist.’
Gordon pointed out that in no way could Thomas’s research achievements be described as ‘dabbling’.
Thomas smiled modestly.