Women in Britain may be allowed to donate eggs for therapeutic cloning and stem cell research to find new treatments for illnesses ranging from diabetes to heart disease.

The government's fertility watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), said on Tuesday it is recommending a change in guidelines that would enable women to provide eggs altruistically for research purposes.

At the moment, only spare embryos left over from fertility treatments are used in therapeutic cloning research.

"We recognize that researchers in the UK who are involved in therapeutic cloning have made public statements over the past year in reference to the need for better quality eggs ..," said HFEA spokesman James Healy.

"The obvious follow-on from that would be to look into the issue of altruistic egg donation."

Therapeutic cloning involves creating early embryos to obtain stem cells -- master cells in the body that can develop into any other cell type -- to treat diseases.

The nucleus of a human egg is removed and replaced with the nucleus from a human cell, such as a skin cell. A chemical trigger starts the egg growing and dividing. After a few divisions, the ball of cells -- or early embryo -- that results is made up mostly of embryonic stem cells.

The technique is condemned by pro-life groups because it then involves removing the stem cells and destroying the embryo.

LEGALISED

Britain legalised therapeutic cloning in 2001. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne have been given licences from the HFEA for therapeutic cloning.

The new recommendation, which is being considered by the HFEA's ethics and law committee on Tuesday and its executive board on Wednesday, would allow women to donate eggs specifically for stem cell research.

If the recommendation is approved, the HFEA suggests women be compensated for expenses and loss of earnings up to 250 pounds ($435).

"One extremely important factor is consent and patient information," said Healy. "It must be made clear to them that if they are willing to go through a cycle of IVF (in-vitro fertilisation) purely for research what the risks are."

But opponents of therapeutic cloning described the proposed change as disgraceful.

"We are dismayed by this proposition because egg donation is inherently risky and unnecessary," said Matthew O'Gorman, a spokesman for the pro-life charity LIFE.

The HFEA recommendation, if approved, would also prohibit scientists working on therapeutic cloning from using eggs donated from their team members.

Disgraced South Korean stem cell scientist Kwang Woo-suk, who fabricated groundbreaking data on tailored embryonic stem cells, was accused by colleagues of coercing female subordinates into donating their eggs for experiments.