BEIJING, Aug. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- British scientists say they have received permission to clone human embryos for medical research. Such license is believed to be the first to be granted in Europe.

    In a procedure based on the same technique that created Dolly, the first cloned sheep, the scientists will create embryos as a source of stem cells to help develop new treatments for diabetes and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

    They will duplicate early-stage embryos and extract stem cells from them. The embryos will be destroyed before they are 14 days old and will never be allowed to develop beyond a cluster of cells the size of a pinhead.

    Earlier this year, scientists in South Korea announced that they had produced the first human cloned embryos.

(CRIENGLISH.com)