Letter: This one won't fly

Sir: Sinister news of scientists in the US having created four- legged chickens (12 March). By taking a gene found in legs and transferring it to the wings of chicken embryos, they have caused the beginnings of clawed feet to appear. What a handy creation for the poultry farmer, with four legs per bird and no bony wings.

To those who argue the line that genetically modifying organisms are no more than an extension of the selective breeding careful farmers have used for centuries, I say: show me a four-legged chicken thus bred. Perhaps these same people will tell us that four-legged chickens will help to feed the world's starving.

PETER F KENYON

Summer Hill,

New South Wales,

Australia