clipped from: www.cnn.com LONDON, England (AP) -- British scientists warn that an impending government decision that may ban research to create human embryos from animal eggs will jeopardize finding a cure for diseases such as Alzheimer's and spinal muscular atrophy.
Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the country's independent regulator of fertility and embryo research, is set to announce on Thursday whether such procedures should be permitted. Similar research is currently ongoing in China and the United States.
Scientists in Britain, which has traditionally been a world leader in stem cell and cloning research, say they have been informally told that their license applications are unlikely to be approved. The agency said it would not comment until a decision is made. (Watch ethical debate over hybrid research 
)
In a paper published last month by Britain's Department of Health on proposed revisions to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology act, which covers stem cell research, the government proposed outlawing the creation of hybrid embryos combining human and animal genetic material. Current restrictions on this practice, according to the report, are based on public concerns.
"It troubles me that these results have been sold as a medical revolution," said Dr. David King, director of Human Genetics Alert, a genetics watchdog. "There's still something valid in the idea of species barrier which we should not cross."
Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted the government is not dead set against the scientists' proposals.
"If there's research that's going to help people, then we want to see it go forward," he said Friday during a tour of a London hospital. He acknowledged there were "difficult" issues surrounding stem cells.