Jonathan Dimbleby.

This is one of a series of programmes in which some topic of current concern is discussed first by Jonathan Dimbleby and his guests and is then thrown open to the studio audience. The topic for this programme, broadcast on 15.11.98, is cloning. It took place a few weeks prior to the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Authority's recommendation that cells from human embryos could be used for cloning tissue. Jonathan Dimbleby says that'breakthrough' is an over-used word in science but advances in cloning really do seem to deserve this description. But what exactly is happening? What is the purpose of this research? And is it to be welcomed? Taking part in the discussion are Professors Colin Blakemore (Oxford University) and Graham Bulfield (Roslin Institute), Professor Lord Robert Winston (Hammersmith Hospital), Professor John Harris (medical ethicist), Dr. Donald Bruce (Church of Scotland) and Bryan Appelyard (writer and journalist). Members of the studio audience express concern that cloning may be funded by and directed towards commercial interests, and suggest that scientists should be excluded from committees setting the ethical guidelines for cloning.