Japan Panel OKs Human Cloning For Research

The government's top science council has voted to adopt policy recommendations that would permit limited cloning of human embryos for scientific research in Japan, an official said. Japan banned human cloning in 2001, but has permitted researchers to use human embryos that aren't produced by cloning. The recommendations, approved Friday, would let researchers produce and use cloned human embryos, but only for basic research, said Tomohiko Arai, an official at the Cabinet's Council for Science and Technology Policy. The cloning won't be allowed for use in treating human patients.