Did cloning kill Dolly?

On 23 February 1997, an article appeared in the Observer newspaper heralding the arrival of the world's first mammal cloned from an adult cell, Dolly the sheep. Almost six years later to the day comes news that Dolly has died. Although the amount of press coverage that Dolly's death has provoked is nowhere near that of her arrival, there is a familiar tendency amongst commentators to jump to conclusions in the face of the news.

Newspapers and commentators have been quick to draw a link between the fact that Dolly was a clone and the fact that she has died relatively young. The Independent newspaper ran the headline 'Early death of Dolly the sheep sparks warning on cloning', whilst numerous commentators warned of the dangers of making cloned babies. Richard Gardiner of the Royal Society, told BBC News Online: 'If there is a link, it will provide further evidence of the dangers inherent in reproductive cloning and the irresponsibility of anybody who is trying to extend such work to humans.' Meanwhile, an anti-abortion commentator said 'I would hope that this wretched thing that has happened would convince the general public that cloning is wrong and should be banned full stop.'

However, until a post-mortem has been performed, it is too early to say whether Dolly's demise has anything to do with the method of her conception per se. We know very little about how sheep fare in old age, because most of them are eaten by the age of nine months. As Robin McKie, in the Observer, observed, 'From a sample of one, we simply cannot say if Dolly's vulnerability was the result of inheriting already aged genes or was merely happenstance.'

Even if it is established that cloning killed Dolly, this is nothing to be pleased about. Some commentators have seemed to be sighing with relief at the suggested link, thinking that this provides a failsafe argument against human reproductive cloning. But if cloning is responsible for Dolly's death, we ought perhaps to get better at cloning; not because cloned babies is a good idea, but because cloning research, both in animals and in human embryos, is scientifically useful. We shouldn't shy away from performing more cloning experiments because we fear that the findings might be used to make cloned babies. Instead, we ought to make a clear distinction between research that is beneficial to mankind and treatments that probably aren't. As a headline in the Observer says: 'Goodbye Dolly - you leave the world a better place'.