[JURIST] Britain's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) [official website] has given permission to Professor Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the sheep [Wikipedia article], a license to clone human embryos for medical research, only the second time the authority has given consent for therapeutic cloning [BBC News Q&A; JURIST report on HFEA's first grant]. Wilmut will clone early stage embryos in order to study motor neuron disease [BBC News backgrounder]. Therapeutic cloning, legalized in 2002, remains a source of controversy in the UK, with opponents calling it unethical, unnecessary and a step toward full blown human cloning. Efforts by the UN to draft an anti-cloning treaty [JURIST report] were abandoned last year [JURIST report]. Read the HFEA press release on its granting of a research license to Wilmut and more from BBC News.