Scientists around the world have reportedly started a major effort to devise a set of global standards that would guide stem cell research.

The researchers, joined by ethicists and others, say the current patchwork of laws and ethics rules is only generating confusion and interfering with international collaborations, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Although any guidelines would not supersede national or state laws, supporters say such a guide would set rules of acceptable procedure in areas that lack stem cell laws -- as is the case currently in much of the United States.

Embryonic stem cell research involves the creation and destruction of the earliest forms of human life and that has produced extraordinarily intense controversy in the United States and some other areas. However, in Japan and some other cultures, the issue draws little debate, The Post said.