The synthetic embryos - only days or weeks old - could help explain infertility and pregnancy loss.
Scientists have created the first synthetic human embryos - using no eggs or sperm - provoking deep ethical questions, according to reports.
The development of human synthetic embryos was announced at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. But the principle is the synthetic embryos are made from a stem cell rather than a fusion of egg and sperm.Stem cells have the capacity to become any cell-type in the body and if coaxed in just the right way can be persuaded to form embryos.
The synthetic embryos do not behave in exactly the same way as normal embryos. And it is unclear how their use in research should be governed. Most countries use the 14-day rule in human-embryo research. This allows an embryo created by fertilising a human egg to be grown for 14 days.Dr Ildem Akerman, from the University of Birmingham, said: "These findings suggest that we would soon develop the technology to grow these cells beyond the 14-day limit, with potentially more insights to gain into human development.Legal and ethical experts in the UK are drawing up a voluntary set of guidelines for how to proceed.
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