A leading British scientist announced today that he wants to clone human embryos, saying it would be "immoral" not to carry out the research.
Professor Ian Wilmut, who headed the team which created Dolly the sheep, is applying for Britain's first licence to clone human embryos.
There will be "a great number of benefits" from the procedure, he told BBC Radio 4's Todayprogramme.
Cloning human embryos has been legal in Britain since 2001 and has never been carried out. The world's first successful attempt was announced only three months ago.
Prof Wilmut's application will be the first submitted to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. He wants to study what goes wrong in the nerve cells of patients suffering from motor neurone disease.
The technique could also be applied to a range of other disorders including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes and even heart disease.
There is currently no cure for many of the diseases the research might help, Prof Wilmut said. "In many cases there is no treatment at all," he said.
"So this research holds out over a period of time that one day we may be able to treat some of these conditions for the first time."
Britain's science minister Lord Warner said the application would be very carefully considered by the independent watchdog.