A US company said today it had cloned a human embryo in a breakthrough aimed not at creating a human being but at mining the embryo for stem cells used to treat disease.
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Mr Michael West
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It is the first time anyone has reported successfully cloning a human embryo, and biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology Inc, based in Massachusetts, said it hopes the experiment will lead to treatments for diseases ranging from Parkinson's to juvenile diabetes.
However, the announcement drew immediate criticism from those fearing the step would lead to human cloning. US Congress has moved to outlaw all human cloning and a proposed new law is under consideration by the Senate.
The company said it had used cloning technology to grow a tiny ball of cells that could then be used as a source of stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are a kind of master cell that can grow into any kind of cell in the body.
"Scientifically, biologically, the entities we are creating are not individuals. They're only cellular life. They're not human life," Mr Michael West, chief executive officer of ACT said.
But Mr West said that had the embryo been placed in a woman's womb, it could possibly have grown into a human being.
"We took extreme measures to ensure that a cloned human could not result from this technology," he said.
President George Bush decided earlier this year that federal funds could be used for research on embryonic stem cells, but only on those that had been created before August.
Federal law prohibits the use of taxpayer money for the cloning of human beings but ATC says it is a privately funded company and can do as it pleases.