The Dutch government has announced it will allow researchers to grow human embryos “under strict and limited conditions” for scientific research. The Netherlands will change its laws on embryonic research, which had until now only allowed tests to be conducted on leftover embryos procured from in vitro fertilisation processes. Edith Schippers the Dutch health minister said she “wants to allow the creation of embryos for scientific research – and under very strict conditions to give people the possibility of (healthy) children”. RT reports: “The ban on the cultivation of embryos [has] hampered research which could help with the treatment of diseases on the short to medium-long term,” the government said in a statement, justifying the ethically controversial move. The cultivation would still have strict conditions applied to it, the statement said. Such embryos can only be used in research related to “infertility, artificial reproduction techniques and hereditary or congenital diseases.” The new regulations would not change the so-called “14-day rule”, which demands that any human embryo kept in a lab be destroyed no later than two weeks after fertilization. The rule, designed to avoid a debate on when an embryo should be considered a human being rather than a tissue [...]