Lord Robert Winston: “I think Jeremy Hunt has behaved unbelievably badly and I am extremely angry wi

pic courtesy: mirror.co.uk

Lord Robert Winston (Labour party) is quite disgruntled with the government especially with regards to the ongoing junior doctors’ strikes. He says “I have a great sympathy for them as they are very poorly portrayed in the press. I think Jeremy Hunt has behaved unbelievably badly and I am extremely angry with the government because there is a critical issue about the health service which many medical students will recognize. The reason why their interest is expert and valued is for one reason – Academic lesson. Junior doctors who are doing Academic medicine are massively penalized by the proposal.”

However he encourages and asks current students to hold on. His message is, “The current medicine students mustn’t be depressed or threatened or disappointed by their career in medicines. They should understand that what they will be doing is the most exciting and amazing thing to be doing as they will see people in a way that they have never thought about. They will see people when they are at their most vulnerable and in pain and worried about their family and it is then when young doctors will feel privileged to serve them and help them to recover. “

He blames the situation on the mismanagement of the current government which has led to NHS falling massively in debt and creating a big black hole of billions of pounds. He is open about his anger towards Jeremy Hunt and says, “This government just doesn’t listen. I think there is a huge problem with this government as it has constantly ignored all the expert opinions on medicines. This isn’t new. It happened with the reforms in 2012 which Jeremy Hunt was responsible for. It is a dreadful piece of legislation and this makes the health services very difficult to manage.”

Unfortunately the power vested to the Lords in the House of Lords is quite limited. So whether he will take up this issue there and how fruitful it will be, he says, “We can’t stop till the act is passed as a law but we will certainly try and influence clearer thinking about what should be done to tackle this situation.”

Off politics Lord Winston’s recent book ‘Utterly Amazing Human Body’ won the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize. He has now won the award thrice and authored more than 35 books. When I asked him about the hat-trick, he answers modestly, “It’s surprising and puzzling! I mean no one else has won the Royal Society Book prize more than twice. I am just surprised. The book is a pretty fun pop-up one and everyone should enjoy it.”

He is currently excited about his new project he is working on and shared a little information about it, “I am currently working on genetic modification of embryos from large animals in my lab. I am working with my PHD students Sheba Jarvis on sperm development in testes which I think is quite interesting particularly genes which control cholesterol metabolism and we are trying to link it up to what goes wrong in the testes.” The project aims to create pigs which have enough human DNA in their organs that they could be transplanted into humans without rejection. According to him through genetic modification, scientists will have the power to create super humans but he wants the experiment to be subjected only to pigs. As to why he says, “Meddling with humans will create an unbalance in the nature. Homo sapiens have different emotions and that is are more than enough. We all know that every creation and innovation has both an upside and downside to it. Therefore it will be a big responsibility if successful.”

He concluded, “We all have ethical duties towards our society. One of the ethical duty is to try and communicate variably among each other and with the public in general. We should also consider the ethical implications of what we do and therefore I think that’s an important obligation we have with the education we gain. When Einstein’s brain was diagnosed after his death and cut into pieces, it was found that the size of his brain was just like yours and mine. We all have the same potential. We just need to work hard and persevere.”

Lord Robert Winston is considered as the the Pioneer of In vitro fertilization (IVF). He frequently speaks on various issues related to science, medical and education in the House of Lords and was voted “Peer of the Year” by his fellow Parliamentarians in June 2008 for his expertise and work on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.