More than just the birth of a camel

• Last Updated: April 15. 2009 9:30AM UAE / April 15. 2009 5:30AM GMT

The birth in Dubai of Injaz, the world’s first cloned camel, is a promising realisation of biomedical possibilities. Named from the Arabic word for “achievement”, the female calf – the only one of seven “reconstructed embryos” to survive induced pregnancies from a surrogate mother – brings potentially earthshaking implications for agriculture, the treatment of disease and the preservation of endangered species.

Injaz is another scientific accomplishment to mark alongside the UAE’s ambition to become the first Arab nation to establish a civilian nuclear programme by 2017. As with the harnessing of safe, clean atomic power in this region, cloning can also be of great value to society and demonstrates how far the UAE has come in its scientific capabilities. The scientific team that brought Injaz to life at the Camel Reproduction Centre notes that this breakthrough could help supply the region with milk and meat and also help breed elite racers.

Since Dolly the Sheep made history as the first cloned mammal 13 years ago in Edinburgh, genetic copies of creatures such as mice, buffalo, cats, rabbits, cows, and now camels, have followed. While the cloning of human embryos is still a scientific impossibility, if and when it becomes possible, such activity would be fraught with controversy. Any excitement about the potential of cloning technologies should be tempered by careful ethical and theological deliberation.

It is only natural to consider advancements like the cloning of Injaz with a measure of wonder and an equal measure of uncertainty as to where they will lead. In the late 1970s, the birth of Louise Brown, the world’s first so-called “test-tube baby”, caused a chorus of objection. Today, Ms Brown is approaching her 31st birthday and the process of in-vitro fertilisation has become commonplace, with the US Centers for Disease Control recording more than 48,000 such births in 2003.

That is not to say that moral considerations about the future of cloning will become less relevant with the passage of time, and nor should they. As the UAE celebrates what is indeed a scientific triumph in the region, it must also brace for the inevitable moral questions that emerge from such achievements.