第1个回答 2014-12-24
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赛缪尔.伍德博士采访录
I was extremely close with my morher all my life..She was a brilliant eductor ,writer and wonderful woman. Sadly, shen was developed complications related to diabetes.When she lost her eyesight and most of her ability to walk,it was absolutely horrifying for me She passed away from a fall seven or eightyears ago.At her funeral,I swore that one day I’d do something about conditions like hers.
Years passed and I read about the work the South Koreans had done with stem cells.In 2004 and 2005 Hwang WooSuk fraudulently repoted that he had succeededin creating human embryoniv stem cells by cloning.Back then it wasn’t kown it was a fraud,so it was very excitinh to think that a long list of diseases could be treated.
I found the stem cell research company Stemagen with another gentleman whose father hand died of ALS.We went out for drinks one night and we started talking about our parents.We wanted to do something that would be a legacy.for them.
For Better or Worse?
The moment we diceded to start Stemagen,I read all there was to read about the various cloning efforts in the past.The cloned sheep Dolly in 1997was very interesting,but at that stage people were not focusing on the stemcell aspect of cloning；they were focusing on the reproductive possibilities of cloning.
Human reproductive cloning is just simply wrong ethically from a medical standpoint and a scientific standpoint,even ignoring any religious issues associated with it.The reason is that the majority of reproductive clones in other species are actually abnormal,with very high miscarriage rates,very high stillbirth rates,fetal anomalie,death soon after birth,et cetera.
It would just be absolutely wrong to take a human being and put them through what may well involve significant suffering for really no good end.Even though people could take the techniques that we’ve developed and attenp to do it(or perhaps even be successful doing it),we hope that they would not.
On the other hand,therapeutic cloning does not involve any type of risk to human life and actually provides tremendous potential for the relief of suffering inreal human beings who are going through some awful things.
I’m a pure scientist in some ways,and I know that manyvdifferent studies or findings could be used for evil.Our job as scientist is to make the most of this technology and make it available to the greatest number of other scientists who can help us do good things with it.There’s really no effective way for an individual scientist to stop someone else from using the knowledge for something they should’t.
We need to be honest aboutthe techniques that we used.They need to be able to be replicated by other people,and s9,we are providing a roadmap.I would hope that the legislation that’s in place and the hreat public disapproval that would result from any attempt to clone a human would dissuade anyone from going down that path.
What is it they say?There is no technology that hasn’t been used for some evil purpose at some will attempt human reproductive cloning.I do think it’s inevitable,and it’s virtually impossible to legislate that away.
Claim to Fame
I am spoken of as the first man to "clone himself."There are different types if cloning.At the cellular level,yes,it’s ture I am the first man to clone himself.We thought a great deal about how to deal with the issue of whose cells we should use and whether we should let the world and the scientific community know who the first cellular clone was.In the end we decieded that we wanted to put a human face on cloning.
I didn’t anticipate it would create the firstorm of controversy that it’s created,but I’m still glad we went down that path. We received thousands of e-mails and phone calls from people who need help.
I think by c9ming forward and putting a face to it we made it very real,and now people around the world know that cloning is here.I believe that very soon it will be used therapeutically,so I think our purpose was served.
Pure Science
What happens is an informed and consenting woman donates an egg and we remove her gentic material from the egg.Then we place a single skin cell inside that egg.
What we’re really interested 8n is creating disease-specific and person-specific stem cell lines.The procedure of taking cells from a person takes no more than a minute or two.You can take some skin cells from the arm,for example,and in one to two minutes,you can get the cells that you need to carry out this process
This process enables us to study the causes of specific diseases,such as Alzheimer’s Disease,ALS or Parkinson’s Disease,and then research a variety of treatments for these diseases.If the stem cell lines are created for any given individual and are later transplanted back into the individual,they will not be rejected by the individual.
Sweet Success
I always thought that when our research was successful I would just be pleased that we had accomplished this when others had not.In reality,it is transcendent-when you look through the micioscope,you see what you may have looked like a long time ago,at least in part.
When I looked down and saw that cloned blastocyst,it brought tears to my eyes.I had done this for my mother,and I realized,had she only been able to live a few years longer,maybe we could have used this technology to help her.It was emotional to see tht potential,which she never had a chance to experience.
There's a big misconception out there that we decided to destroy these embryos for some reason.There was so much skepticism about this process because of the scientific fraud from the past that it was critical that there be no doubt that they were clones.
In the process of analysis,the embryos were destroyed by necessary.In other words, to get the genetic material from inside the cells to analyze it,you have to destroy the cell.We would have loved to have been able to avoid destroying them.
Now we're working full-time on creating stem cell lines,and people are watching with great interest.
The Pope and the President
There are a variety of opponents to our work.
We were condemned by the Vatican and mentioned in a negative light in President Bush's State of the Union address.In a sense it's an honor because it shows that we're doing something significant.It's not every day that you get condemned by the Vatican and President Bush in the same week.
There's usually no dialogue between the researchers in the embryonic stem cell field and those who oppose it.
It doesn't make sense to me that it's such an emotional and contentious topic.Logically,this is not life.I agree it's a potential life,but the vast majority of embryos never become life.The majority generate,don't implant and die.A fetus is a life.That argument makes sense to me,but it doesn't make sense to me look at an embryo in a lab and give it all the rights of a human life.