Scottish scientists, renowned for creating Dolly the cloned sheep, on Tuesday secured a British government licence permitting controversial stem cell research using human embryos.
The Roslin Institute near Edinburgh will use embryos no longer needed by couples undergoing in-vitro fertilisation treatment.
The research team, which created Dolly as the first cloned mammal in 1996, will conduct experiments on stem cells taken from the embryos and will artificially stimulate human eggs through a process called parthenogenesis.
It is the first time such experiments have been allowed in Britain. The aim is to test treatments for degenerative illnesses, like Parkinson’s and heart disease.
The licence from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) does not allow human cloning to produce babies, but critics fear it could pave the way for human cloning in the future.
A HFEA spokesperson said it would be impossible to develop a human clone from the procedures involved in parthenogenesis.
”Parthenogenesis is not cloning because you only have half the DNA in the cells, which are not capable of developing into a clone,” she said. – Sapa-DPA