New laws to create cloned babies
(sz) British couples could soon be able to have babies created using DNA from two women and a man as part of a revolutionary human cloning technique.
Controversial legislation due to be debated by politicians this week sets out ways to allow test-tube babies to be created from the biological material from three parents.
The laws would allow an embryo to be created from the nucleus of one woman’s egg, her partner’s sperm and another woman’s mitochondria, the material surrounding an egg’s nucleus and which promotes cell growth.
The Independent on Sunday said if the controversial legislation was approved, babies created using the cloning technique could be born within the next decade.
But many politicians and church leaders were expected to oppose the new laws, arguing they effectively pave the way for the first human clones and remove the need for a father in the upbringing of a child.
But scientists claim the new procedure was designed to help find a cure for mitochondrial disease, which can lead to epilepsy, diabetes and fatal damage to various organs.
Researchers at the North of England Stem Cell Research Centre in Newcastle said trials to create babies using the new technique could begin within five years. more…
From: »The Sydney Mornung Herald«