ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the cell nuclear replacement technique pioneered by Professor Ian Wilmut and his team at the Roslin Institute could legally and ethically be used to create embryos, and subsequent children, free from genetic diseases. Gene therapy combined with the discovery of the cell nuclear replacement technique, the possibilities of science correcting genetic defects has increased immensely. The problem seems to arise with the proposal to implant the new genetic defect free embryo into a woman for implantation and development. Whilst the genetic defect free embryo would have been created otherwise than by fertilisation immediately prior to implantation in a woman, it originally had been created by in vitro fertilisation. If the cell nuclear replacement technique was used to create genetic defect free embryos, they would merely be creating clones of a unique genetic embryo created originally by in vitro fertilisation.
