Interviews with R. H. Wicker

EXAMPLE INTERVIEW 1

EXAMPLE INTERVIEW: 5th December 2000

Student's name: Erica ******

Every now and then I am able to answer a students interview request. This interview can then be used as an example. I usually refer student inquiries to our "Help for Students" section. Eventually, I will gather them together and put them all together on a line at ‘Help for Students.

Interview Questions with my answers:

My time is very limited. I will give you very brief questions and then perhaps send you other materials.

1. What is cloning?

(1) Cloning is creating a later born twin by inserting a person's or animal's cell into an enucleated egg and giving it a small jolt of electricity so that it behaves as if it has been fertilized. It then commences dividing and differentiating into an embryo which can then be implanted into a female, where it becomes first a fetus and finally a later born twin of the original cell donor.

2. How did you become interested in this subject?

(2) I became interested in the subject the day Dolly's birth was announced in late February 1997. I could not understand the hysteria on the part of many people about an event that I thought was just another wonderful step forward for science and human knowledge.

3. What is the most exciting part about working with such an intense topic?

(3) The most exciting part of working with such an intense topic is that you are out in front of contemporary social and political thought. Every day a new question or another aspect arises that you never thought of before. the issue of "cloning" is like a unfolding "novel" of real life facts and implications.

4. Is it possible to clone a human being?

(4) Of course it is possible to clone a human being. They have cloned mice which were considered harder to clone than human beings. However, you have to realize that when you "clone a human being" you don't get another replica human being, you don't get "another full grown adult", you just get a little baby that will eventually grow up as a later born identical twin of the original cell donor.

5. What side effects occur when an animal or human is cloned?

(5) No one "knows" what "side effects occur when an animal or human is cloned". However, a lot of people like to sit around and think up "problems" and dream up nightmares about "compromised identity" of the child conceived through cloning. The one that makes me laugh the hardest is the idea that a young person will look at the older twin (maybe 30,40 or 50 or more years older) and "become upset" knowing exactly what thy will look like at the age of, say sixty years of age. I was not conceived through cloning. However, anyone can look around and see that they are not going to look that great at the age of sixty, seventy or eighty years of age.

6. How do you create a clone?

(6) You don't "create a clone". "Clone" is a dehumanizing term for a human being. You cause a child to be conceived through cloning by the manner I described in my answer to question one.

7. What does cloning technology have to offer?

(7) Cloning technology is the greatest discovery in the history of medical science. Through "cloning technology" we can create stem cell cultures for any living human being from which we can possibly get heart cells, liver cells, nerve cells, whatever, to repair and restore the original patient who donated the original cell. I will forward to you the Church of England story supporting "therapeutic cloning" which covers this in detail. Stem cell research is going to revolutionize medicine. We will soon be able to create heart cells to inject into heart patients, and those heart cells will go to those patients' ailing hearts and repair them. This is why every researcher in the country wants to get involved in stem cell research.

8. What type of problems could cloning cause?

(8) Cloning will create many more blessings and benefits than problems. All the "problems" blamed on cloning by those opposed to it are the fantasies of the small minds of closed minded and frightened people, the same people who would have kept the Wright Brothers from flying Kitty Hawk in 1902 because "if god had meant men to fly, he would have given them wings" and/or "attempting to fly is too dangerous because many people have died trying".

9. How safe is cloning?

(9) Cloning "safety" is mainly an issue regarding human beings. We know that the technology is getting more and more perfected regarding other animals. However, the first efforts to conceive a child through cloning will be, by definition, "experimental, untested and risky". I believe that informed people who are willing to assume that "risk" have the right to do so. However, until this techniques has been done successfully with humans and has a proven track record, one would have to say that - at this moment in time - human cloning is "unsafe".

10. How will it change humankind?

(10) For a brief and stunning outline about how "cloning will change humankind", please go to www.CloneRights.com look under "History of the Movement" till you find an article entitled "Human Cloning: A Promising Cornucopia". That just gives you a brief and mind-boggling outline.

11. What was unique about the process that was used to produce Dolly?

(11) The unique process used to create Dolly was called "nuclear transfer". There are now several different methods to use in cloning. Basically, what each of these processes relies on, is the fact that in each cell of any mammal there is a map of that entire living organism. Following nuclear transfer, this map can be tapped into and made to create another later born twin of the original.

12. What’s the difference between [twinning] an embryo and cloning from an adult cell?

(12) The difference between "[twinning] an embryo and cloning from an adult cell" is very simple. When two halves of an embryo separate in its earliest stages, it creates a twin of itself. This is what happens in nature when human identical twins are born. Now, scientists can artificially do the same with human or mammal embryos, dividing them, one into two, two into four, four into eight, etc. In fact, this was the method used by PPL to produce a litter of five identical piglets just a few months ago. When you clone [via nuclear transfer] from an adult cell, you take that cell and inject into an egg from which the nucleus has been removed and then spark it lightly so it commences dividing as described in my answer to question one.

Date of interview: Dec. 5, 2000
Student's name: Erica ******

Student had some excellent questions. Otherwise I would never have answered.
Total time of interview: much too much time.

Student didn't have to take notes, she got me to write it all out for her.
Additional comments: I will probably print this entire thing on our FAQ board as "Example Interview #4" we get endless inquiries from students. Our message boards have been down for the past couple weeks. I am involved in the most important social revolution of our time. I appreciate efforts at educating our young people, but it is simply impossible for me to do this on anything other than a random and infrequent basis.

Cloningly yours,
Randolfe H. Wicker
Director, Human Cloning Foundation www.humancloning.org
Founder, Clone Rights United Front www.clonerights.com