"It's quite presumptuous really, telling you [New Zealanders] what to do," he begins in the slightly self-deprecating yet intimate style so familiar from his TV series The Human Body and Superhuman.
The scientific and social issues facing New Zealand are exactly the same as those in the United Kingdom.
Winston's core message is clear. Only a public that is well informed about scientific and biotech issues will make rational decisions.
"The public must be involved at all levels [of scientific debate]."
On the other hand, "You have to be aware of single pressure groups skewing the view".
He paints a big brain picture of the world's problems: a population blowout in Asia while Australasia, "significantly," is not growing at all and ageing rapidly, plus an insatiable hunger for energy.
He predicts a five, six or even sevenfold increase in energy use over the next few years with accompanying greenhouse gas emissions posing "a very real threat" as successive Governments, bending to public perceptions, shy away from nuclear power, which "might be the safest and cleanest for countries like Britain".
The key discussion now, he contends, centres on the status of the human embryo.
He says the road between conception and a live birth is a highly precarious affair that has been skewed by media and popular perception.
"There is a huge amount of cant around older women bearing children against difficult biological issues," he says, alluding to the 62-year-old Frenchwoman who gave birth in June after becoming pregnant using a donor egg and her brother's sperm.
The real world of reproductive technology - even, presumably, at Hammersmith Hospital where Winston is head of reproductive medicine - is very different.
Eighty two per cent of fertilised eggs do not become babies: "There are often very severe defects, often chromosomal".
In his opinion, treating an embryo as a live child from the moment of conception is a "deeply flawed argument" - and one that has already been won in Britain where Parliament voted strongly to support work with stem cells, setting in train potential treatments for conditions such as Parkinson's disease.
On the other hand he sees talk of cloning human beings as "nonsense".
Not necessarily because it is technologically impossible, but because of the great risks involved: the huge loss of embryos, spontaneous abortion, foetal deaths, neo-natal mortality, gross abnormalities.
The real brake on human cloning, he believes, is that anybody who did this and transferred a clone to a human uterus would face public condemnation.
At last Winston gets to the list on his menu. Scientists must be selective in the projects they pursue and our scientific infrastructure must not be allowed to languish.
"It can be easily destroyed by just two years of inadequate funding."
Interdisciplinary connection in science faculties is essential as is education. "We must remember neglected undergraduates."
We must also encourage industry to do more research.
Above all we must never forget the connection between science and society.
"There is a very strong message here about the need for science and the community to deeply connect."
*Lord Robert Winston will give a public lecture on Monday from 3.30 pm to 4.30 pm at the Robb Lecture Theatre, University of Auckland Medical School, 85 Park Rd, Grafton. Admission is free.
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