Dr David King, director of the watchdog group, Human Genetics Alert, said: "What concerns me about the possibility of artificial embryos is that this may become a route to creating GM or even cloned babies. "Until there is an enforceable global ban on those possibilities, as we saw with mitochondrial transfer, this kind of research risks doing the scientific groundwork for entrepreneurs, who will use the technologies in countries with no regulation." The scientists would need to seek permission from the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA), before attempting to create human embryos using the technique, and experts called for 'international dialogue' before going ahead. Prof James Adjaye, Chair of Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine, Heinrich Heine University, in Germany, said: “A regulatory body will ultimately decide on whether human stem cell embryos can be generated and for how long they can be left in the petri dish to develop further. “Of course, there should be an international dialogue on the regulation of such experiments.” But the study was welcomed by the scientific community who said it was a significant breakthrough. Dr Dusko Ilic, Reader in Stem Cell Science, King’s College London, said the research was ‘masterpiece’ in creating the earliest steps of life in a lab.
several young scientists have successfully grown a mammal embryo from just stem cells . Blending two types of mouse stem cells , the scientists grew the mix in a womb - like chemical tank and created a living mouse hybrid . The bioengineering breakthrough could lead to the creation of artificial human life without the need for sperm or sperm for an embryo . The technique could help researchers to understand the early stages of human growth , but it also raises questions about the ethics of creating cells in a lab .