Scientists get 'gene editing' go-ahead
It is the first time a country has considered the DNA-altering technique in embryos and approved it.
The research will take place at the Francis Crick Institute in London and aims to provide a deeper understanding of the earliest moments of human life.
It will be illegal for the scientists to implant the modified embryos into a woman.
But the field is attracting controversy over concerns it is opening the door to designer - or GM - babies.
DNA is the blueprint of life - the instructions for building the human body. Gene editing allows the precise manipulation of DNA.
In a world-first last year, scientists in China announced they had carried out gene editing in human embryos to correct a gene that causes a blood disorder.
Opinion:
This is an important step in human evolution, this kind of work will allow sufferer's of hereditary diseases to not pass on those same genes to their children. It is a cause for concern in another sense as in the future if this is to become a common thing it could allow people to design their baby and could create a whole industry much like dog breeding of attempting to create the perfect human, or even worse attempt to create certain traits that could confuse what it is to be Human.
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