Science: Grow Your Own Spare Parts ; If Embryo Research Is Extended in Britain, One Day We Could All Be Growing Our Own Set of Organs Ready to Use Should We Need a Transplant. but Would It Open the Door to Cloning Humans?

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Later this month, MPs will be allowed a free vote on whether to amend the existing law on human embryo research in order to allow scientists to investigate the potential medical benefits of embryonic stem cells. These cells, which possess the ability to develop into any of the 200 or more specialised tissues of the body, promise to revolutionise medicine in the 21st century. They could allow human tissues, and possibly even organs, to be grown in the laboratory for transplant surgery.

Furthermore, by applying the latest advances in cloning technology, it may one day be possible to take a skin cell of a patient, extract the nucleus and use it to create a cloned embryo …