Lovell-Badge added that concerns that embryonic research might lead to reproductive human cloning were unfounded.

CNN: Cloning success hailed, feared

"The administration is strongly opposed to any legislation that would prohibit human cloning for reproductive purposes but permit the creation of cloned embryos for research, " the policy statement said.

CNN: House poised to consider human cloning

The Vatican has over recent decades issued blanket condemnations of artificial methods of birth control, in-vitro fertilization, therapeutic and reproductive cloning, and human embryonic stem cell research.

FORBES: Venter and the Vatican

This happened last summer when the House of Representatives passed legislation that bans all applications of human cloning -- both research and reproductive -- with stiff penalties for violators.

CNN: graphic