Just because some will be governed by ancient teachings put forward by men who believe themselves to be speaking on behalf of God does not mean that the rest of us should be held back from progress. This technology really is the next step in scientific progress and could alleviate the suffering of millions- surely this appeals to Christians? It does not mean cloning or torture of humans but simply a collection of non-sentient cells left over from reproductive technologies being put to a good use. Do not impose your beliefs on the rest of us and hold us back in the dark ages with you!

Kate, London,

I am astonished that we have allowed this type of research to go ahead. I am convinced that life begins once a zygote has been made. What right have we to use this newly created life for our own ends? It is quite shocking that work on adult stem cells has been sidelined, and that the supposed potential benefits from such hybrid embryos is still a long long way off. I want this type of research stopped.

Dr Mike Viccary, Cross Hills, Keighley, North Yorkshire

I don't really understand the fuss with this. It is nucleic cloning of an adult organism in a "surrogate" egg to exploit the machinery of the cell to produce useful byproducts, in this case a very small ball of cells that exhibit flexibility to become different sorts of body cells. It isn't the first step to cow-people or sentient extra from the Instrumentality of Mankind, no matter how much hot air is blown by the ignorant and/or anti-intellectual lobbies.

What is the real basic difference between this and growing patient skin into sheets ex vivo for skin grafting?

If there are no experiments of this type on the mechanisms involved in all aspects of the biological machine then we may as well all go and sit in a corner of a field and wait for some god or other to strike us dead.

Darran, Retford,