A prominent group of geneticists in Britain has announced it will never clone journalist and TV host Piers Morgan.
The British Society for Genetics (BSG), one of the largest organizations of its kind in the world, passed a non-binding resolution clarifying the BSG’s position on the question of cloning the 48-year-old Briton and star of CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live.”
The BSG comprises some of the most influential names in the field of genetics, including Dr. Damon Burn, who was a head researcher in the Human Genome Project under DNA co-discoverer James Watson. The current BSG chair is Dr. Fiona Sarkar, author of a groundbreaking study about genetic mutations in males of the rare chicken species Mentula magna.
The resolution was passed by a unanimous vote of the BSG’s governing body, which includes 114 members from over 40 countries. BSG press officer Angus McMullan said the drive to prevent a Piers Morgan clone was undertaken as a peremptory measure, and was not sparked by any request from Morgan to obtain the help of the BSG or any of its members.
The resolution bars members from knowingly providing “research or applied knowledge, in the form of scholarship, counsel or laboratory assistance” that aids any efforts to make “a viable zygote with the same genetic sequence” as Morgan.
“Let’s be candid,” Sarkar said. “BSG members will never facilitate a genetic copy of Mr. Morgan. Never, ever, ever.”
“Not for all the riches in the world, and not for a 100 Nobel Prizes,” she added. “Anyone who wishes for a Piers Morgan clone had better concede this will never happen, at least not on our watch.”
This is only the second time the organization has made a decision of this kind. The first was in 2009 when a similar measure was adopted to stop all research that might lead to a clone of actor Christian Bale.
While mostly known in the United States for his role as a host on CNN, in the UK Morgan has been a fixture for two decades in the world of news and publishing, having been editor of News of the World, as well as founder of First News, the UK’s most popular but still weird tabloid for children.