Green Light for Human/Animal Hybrids

Henneshoe writes "BBC News is reporting that two research facilities have been given the green light to create part human, part animal embryos. According the the report, 'Scientists want to create hybrid embryos by merging human cells with animal eggs in a bid to extract stem cells. The embryos would then be destroyed within 14 days.' The decision to allow the embryos was made after research showed that people in large are OK with the idea."

better late than never

[I8TheWorm]

Approved over 4 years after Chinese scientists [newsmax.com] apparently already began experimenting with the same.

Oh, and the obligatory "I for one welcome our new <insert your own human/animal hybrid here> overlords."

Re:people in large are OK

[ajs]

I am glad that we are trusting the unwashed masses to make important technical decisions that they know nothing about.

I think you misunderstand... the government almost certainly wanted to make sure that there would not be backlash against the idea after having ALREADY made their decision on a technical level (since the advisers in question would have been the ones to bring the issue to that level). However, I'm sure they formed the question in a reasonable way that didn't imply that the island of Dr. Moreau would be coming to a Kwiki-Mart near you. Slashdot, on the other hand....

Even the summary, once you get past that horrid title, makes it clear that we're not talking about changing the DNA involved, but rather using eggs from animals to grow cells that were taken from a human. I can't really imagine why I'd have a problem with growing cells from a human that way vs. previous experiments that have cultured human cells in a stand-alone environment.

Re:I'm no ultra conservative...

[Cedric Tsui]

What you have is a little blob of animal stem cells with a few human stem cells thrown into the mix. Both are multiplying, but we mostly have animal cells. What would likely happen is once the embryo's cells begin specialization and an immune system develops, it would kill off all the human cells leaving itself crippled, deformed and dying.

Re:How is this better?

[Artraze]

This is talking about using an animal embryo to create and harvest cells. The key here is that the embryo itself is animal. Humans have been creating and destroying animal life for ages and only very care so long as the animals don't suffer. The reason why people are against using human embryos is because we'd then be staring to create and destroy _human_ life for research, which is a very different thing. (Of course that's only if you view creating human embryos as creating human life, but many people do.)

Ridiculously Misleading Article Title

[calcapt]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7193820.stm [bbc.co.uk]

I find this incredibly irritating. The specifics of the term "hybrid" are not elaborated upon and the continual use of the term"human-animal hybrid" allows for people to develop the notion that scientists out there are actually creating some monster chimeric creature.

Not. True. If you click on "Q&A Hybrid Embryos", found in the right hand nav bar, you'll see what I mean. I've provided the link below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6233415.stm [bbc.co.uk]

This second link elaborates on why these eggs are considered "hybrid". Genetic material (DNA) is essentially removed from animal cells, leaving an empty nucleus and functional cellular machinery. In other words, you have a cell without DNA that looks very much like a human cell without it's DNA. The scientists then inject human DNA into the animal cell's nucleus; at this point the animal cell reads instructions off the DNA and carries them out. The end product is essentially A HUMAN CELL, but with left over proteins and cellular material generated from the old animal DNA.

This is FAR different from what people appear to be assuming. It's not going to generate some half cow-half human monster/creature, and does NOT "blur" the boundaries between humans and other species.

Re:I can hear the excuses already...

[plover]

All this talk of "green light" and "light years" made me think of the green lighted kitties [wired.com] they've already cloned.

Please, won't someone think of the glow-in-the-dark kitties?

Re:Ridiculously Misleading Article Title

[Nazlfrag]

Mitochondria can also pass between adult cells [pnas.org] (full text on the right). This seems an insanely dangerous path of research. The were-beasts are nigh!