Washington - A US firm is likely to create cloned human embryos or embryo-like entities from single human cells for the first time, a move that is likely to enrage the anti-abortion lobby, Patrick Smyth reports. Advanced Cell Technologies of Worcester, Massachusetts has announced that the work is under way and that it intends to publish results in scientific journals. A spokesman for the company, its president, Mr Michael West, said that they want to start an ethical debate on the propriety of such techniques and that while cloning embryos for stem cell harvesting was acceptable, the company did not approve of cloning human beings.
President Bush is due to decide shortly whether to lift a ban on research using stem cells taken from embryos discarded by fertility clinics.