Advocates of human embryo cloning for medical research claim the practice could lead to the discovery of treatments for illnesses currently deemed incurable.

CNN: France forbids human cloning

Dolly the sheep -- the first cloned animal -- was created over 10 years ago, and the only previous claim of human embryo cloning by South Korean scientist Woo Suk Hwang in 2004, was discredited.

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And in the 2004 paper which they first announced their success in cloning an embryo, they used 242 eggs from 16 women.

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The first cloning of a human embryo shows how costly copying a sick person's cells would be.

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But opponents fear it would open the door to malpractice such as cloning of children and embryo trafficking.

CNN: France forbids human cloning

"It doesn't have to be, you know, embryo stem-cell research or fetal or cloning, " Lott said.

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The basic techniques of human embryo creation that Dr. Edwards pioneered form the technical foundation of in vitro fertilization, human cloning techniques, genetic screening of human embryos and embryonic-stem-cell research.

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