WASHINGTON, Jan 18: Experiments to make cloned human babies are much too dangerous to try now and should be legally banned, with “substantial penalties” to those who disobey, scientists who advise the US government said on Friday.

In a strongly worded report, a National Academy of Sciences panel said both public and private sector efforts to clone a human baby must be stopped until it can be shown the procedure is safe. Scientists usually rely on voluntary action by their fellows.

“The data was so clear,” said Dr. Irving Weissman of the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, who chaired the panel. “And it was clear that there were people who were about to do it.”

The panel of experts said the ban should be reviewed in five years.—Reuters