FROM Reuters:
"U.S. Company Says It Cloned Human Embryo for Cells"
  By Maggie Fox

 " WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. company said on Sunday it
  had cloned a human embryo in a breakthrough aimed not at
  creating a human being but at mining the embryo for stem cells
  used to treat disease.

  It is the first time anyone has reported successfully cloning
a  human embryo, and biotechnology company Advanced Cell
Technology Inc., based in Worcester, Massachusetts, said it
hopes the experiment will lead to tailored treatments for
diseases ranging from Parkinson's to juvenile diabetes.

  ``Our intention is not to create cloned human beings, but
rather   to make lifesaving therapies for a wide range of human
disease conditions, including diabetes, strokes, cancer, AIDS
and neurodegenerative disorders such as  Parkinson's and Alzheimer's
 disease '' Dr.   Robert Lanza, vice president of medical and scientific
  development at ACT, said in a statement.

  However, the announcement drew immediate criticism from
  those fearing the step would lead to human cloning.

  Congress has moved to outlaw all human cloning. A proposed
  new law is under consideration by the Senate.

  Advanced Cell Technology said it had used cloning technology
  to grow a tiny ball of cells that could then be used as a
source   of stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are a kind of master cell
  that can grow into any kind of cell in the body.

  ``Scientifically, biologically, the entities we are creating
are not  individuals. They're only cellular life. They're not human
life,''   Michael West, chief executive officer of ACT, told NBC's Meet
  the Press.

  Federal law prohibits the use of taxpayer money for the
cloning of human beings but Advanced Cell Technologies is a privately
  funded company and can do as it pleases.

  ACT Vice President Joe Cibelli, who led the research, said his
  team had used classic cloning technology using a human egg
  and a human skin cell. They scraped the DNA out of the egg
  cell and replaced it with DNA from the nucleus of the adult
cell.   The egg started to grow as if it had been fertilized by a
sperm, but instead of becoming a baby it became a ball of cells. The
same technology has been used to clone sheep, cattle and monkeys.

  The company did not say whether it had successfully removed
  embryonic stem cells from the cloned embryo.

  Both cloning and stem cell technology are highly controversial
  areas of research in the United States. Stem cells are valued
  by scientists because they could be used to treat many
  diseases, including cancer and AIDS.

  They can come from adults but the most flexible sources so far
  seem to be very early embryos -- so small they are only a ball
of a few cells.

  Such embryos -- usually left over from attempts to make
  test-tube babies -- are destroyed in the process, so many
  people oppose it.

  President Bush decided earlier this year
  that federal funds could be used for research on embryonic
  stem cells, but only on those that had been created before
  August, found at 11 different academic and private
  laboratories.

  When combined with cloning technology, the hope is that
  patients themselves could be the source of their own tissue or
  organs, a technology known as therapeutic cloning.

  ``Human therapeutic cloning could be used for a host of
age-related diseases,'' said  West.
  ``If the human cells behave as animal cells have in previous
studies, we may have found a  means of rebuilding the lifespan
of cells at the same time. This would allow us to supply
  young cells of any kind, identical to the patient, that could
be used to address the tidal  wave of age-related disease that
 will accompany the aging of the population.''

  The reaction was quick and furious from Congress, where both
cloning and stem cell   technology have been debated at length in recent
years.

  Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said he did not yet quite
understand what ACT had done. ``But it's disconcerting, frankly,''
 Daschle said on Fox News Sunday. ``I think it's
  going in the wrong direction.''

  ``I believe it will be a big debate, but at the end of the day
I don't think we're going to let the  cloning of human embryos go on,''
Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby , a Republican, told NBC's ``Meet the
Press''.

  Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy said he agreed. ''I find it very,
  very troubling and I think most of the Congress would,''
Leahy, a Democrat, told NBC.

  The company said it had created only a single six-celled
embryo. But West said that had  the embryo been placed in a
woman's womb, it could possibly have grown into a human being.

  ``We took extreme measures to ensure that a cloned human could
not result from this technology,'' he said."

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