Showing the first signs of Alzheimer's disease? Book in at the local hospital, get brain cells from your personal bank of spare parts and stop the degeneration of your mind in its tracks.

Sound ridiculous? Well, maybe not, as scientists push back the boundaries and develop techniques to clone early form human embryos.

Experts in the US have already succeeded in isolating and growing cultures of human embryonic stem cells - the undeveloped parents of all the tissues in the body.

In time, that could lead to the harvesting of brain cells, muscle tissue and perhaps whole organs grown from scratch.

Now the Human Genetics Advisory Commission and Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in Britain has recommended to the Government that current regulations should be changed to allow research on early form human embryos.

The HGAC says diseases including Parkinson's, Huntingdon's, Alzheimer's and various types of cancer could all be treated more effectively if these techniques are developed.

Excellent news. So what's the problem?

Technological cannibalism

The anti-lobby insists such a move is a major step towards the complete cloning of humans beings, even though the Government's advisers state explicitly that this should be banned.

Anti-abortion group Life are horrified at research on embryos, saying it is "technological cannibalism in which the victims are real living members of the human race".

So what do you think? Are these embryos fast-growing members of the human race, as Life would have us believe, or a legitimate area of research to improve the lot of people in later life?

Would you want your own spare parts bank? And would you be so horrified at the idea if one of your loved ones was deteriorating before your very eyes?

Send your verdict now.

Should scientists clone body parts?

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