Harvard researchers ask to clone embryos

Harvard researchers said Wednesday they have asked the university’s ethics boards for permission to create cloned human embryos for medical research, marking the first push to conduct such experiments at a U.S. academic institution since a failed attempt in 2001.

The goal of the work is to develop cures for diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and other ailments. The approach involves creating cloned human embryos that would be destroyed within days to retrieve stem cells growing within.

Opponents say it is wrong to create human embryos solely for the purpose of destroying them.