Scientists face wait to clone embryo
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A decision on whether to allow the cloning of a human embryo in Britain has been postponed until scientists provide further details of their plans.
A decision on whether to allow the cloning of a human embryo in Britain has been postponed until scientists provide further details of their plans.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said yesterday that it has asked for more information before giving a cloning licence to a team from Newcastle University.
The team led by Alison Murdoch of the Institute of Human Genetics applied for a licence to clone human embryos in order to extract embryonic stem cells for research into diabetes.
Professor Murdoch has emphasised that there is no intention to implant any of the resulting embryos into the womb to produce cloned babies, which is illegal in Britain.
She said that if the licence was granted, work could begin immediately, which could by the end of the year result in the first human embryo in Britain to be created by the same nuclear transfer technique that produced Dolly the sheep.
Last month, The Independent revealed that Professor Murdoch had applied for the first licence to produce cloned human embryos. She said at the time: "We are not going to be granted that licence unless the appropriate authorities believe we have the expertise, and I believe we do. We wouldn't be embarking on this work unless we felt we had a good chance of being successful. We've already generated stem cell lines so we've proven that we have experience in this field."
The decision to give a licence is likely to be highly controversial because of fears that the same techniques used to create cloned embryos for stem cell research could be used to produce cloned babies.
Only one team of scientists, from South Korea, has demonstrated definitively that cloned human embryos are possible. They have vowed that their work is for stem cell research and not reproductive cloning.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments