UK Approves Human-Pig Embryo Stem-Cell Harvest 139
An anonymous reader writes "British biologists have received government approval to create the world's first human stem cells from hybrid embryos, part pig, part human. The Warwick Medical School team, led by Justin St. John of the Clinical Sciences Research Institute, was granted the country's third animal-human embryo license from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which goes into effect today (July 1)." The above link requires (free) registration; the Telegraph's coverage does not.
As a matter of fact... (Score:5, Funny)
I *do* taste like bacon [slashdot.org]! Why do you ask?
that's historically accurate (Score:5, Informative)
historically cannibalistic societies in the pacific did in fact call human flesh "long-pig"
we really **do** taste like pig
"the Marquesas Islands of Polynesia, where human flesh was called long-pig (Alanna King, ed., Robert Louis Stevenson in the South Seas, London: Luzac Paragon House, 1987: 45-50)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism#Middle_Ages [wikipedia.org]
Re:that's historically accurate (Score:5, Funny)
That's because our diets are very similar (omniverous) as well as many aspects of our biochemistry.
Personally after civilization falls I'll be eating the vegans first though. Grain and veggie fed free range vegan...mmmm.
Oh yeah baby (Score:1, Funny)
Most vegans I know lean left politically and don't believe in guns. Easy pickins!
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There's so little eatin' on 'em though, they's always so scrawny
Yes but they are often found in communes. You do the math.
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You sure got a purdy mouth...
But... (Score:4, Funny)
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Boy, that joke never stops being just as funny as it was when it was actually on South Park.
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Why not half man and half bearpig?
Because the world doesn't need another Ron Jeremy.
Now a half woman half cat that looks like Jessica Biel in a sexy leotard? Snarf!!
OT: the game (Score:3, Informative)
God dammit! I *did* just lose the game, and I had a winning streak of close to 4 years, my personal best!
At least I know I'll be bringing other people down with me.
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Oh, believe me, friend, I would have rather not mentioned it at all. But the rules clearly state that if you lose, you gotta own up to it.
I can't wait until... (Score:5, Funny)
I can't wait until my kid takes highschool biology and has to dissect a pig-man embryo.
Oblig. Doctor Who Reference (Score:3, Funny)
This is obviously the work of the Daleks [bbc.co.uk].
No, it's the work of a Piccinini (Score:2, Funny)
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Ack, my eyes!!!!! Seriously, some warning should accompany that......
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Al Gore must be terrified... (Score:1)
Since this is one more step towards the unholy creation of ManBearPig, who will hopefully die by Global Warming before he can kill us all.
On a more serious note, I'm just glad its not human embryos inside of pig cells they're toying with, it's just weird, not intrinsically immoral: they aren't killing anybody.
god shmod (Score:2)
Re:god shmod (Score:4, Funny)
Somewhat misleading... (Score:5, Informative)
The summary seems to imply that they are creating embryos which combine genetic material from humans and pigs. The article, on the other hand, says that they are taking 100% human DNA and implanting them into pig egg cells which have had their DNA removed. I think it's safe to to say that there is a huge difference between the two ideas.
Re:Somewhat misleading... (Score:4, Funny)
Yes. One definitely prevents someone from tasting like bacon.
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The summary seems to imply that they are creating embryos which combine genetic material from humans and pigs. The article, on the other hand, says that they are taking 100% human DNA and implanting them into pig egg cells which have had their DNA removed. I think it's safe to to say that there is a huge difference between the two ideas.
That may be true. But, its much more exciting to talk about manpigs than to talk about the similarities between a pig egg cell and a human egg cell.
Re:Somewhat misleading... (Score:5, Informative)
The summary seems to imply that they are creating embryos which combine genetic material from humans and pigs. The article, on the other hand, says that they are taking 100% human DNA and implanting them into pig egg cells which have had their DNA removed. I think it's safe to to say that there is a huge difference between the two ideas.
They would still have pig mitochondrial DNA, even if the nuclear DNA was all replaced.
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Re:Somewhat misleading... (Score:4, Informative)
In the hybrid, the mitochondria mostly come from the egg, initially making up around half of the DNA by weight, and the team will do experiments in order to ensure that the trace of human mitochondrial DNA takes over, not least because it is designed to work with human nuclear DNA.
Apparently they are trying to remove the Pig Mitochondria as well, or atleast make the human mitochondria dominant.
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Re:Somewhat misleading... (Score:4, Informative)
...but the embryos themselves are only considered to be 99.9% human, and 0.1% animal.
Aren't humans also animals?
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some more so than others.
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Yes, they are scientifically classified as animals. In the common meaning of the term, though, they aren't.
It's like seeing a chart comparing "Mexicans", "Canadians", and "Americans". You know what the latter refers to, despite the fact that all of the three groups live in the North American continent.
It might be more technically correct to go back to using the term "beast" to refer to non-human animals, but it makes people look at you funny nowadays.
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What is being created here is a cytoplasmic hybrid embryo, where the cells nucleus is fully human DNA, but the cells mitochondria is not replaced and that has a DNA signature of its own, meaning that the cells reproduce as human, but the embryos themselves are only considered to be 99.9% human, and 0.1% animal.
OCP don't count these hybrids as human though. Legally they are swine.
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So are lawyers, doesn't stop them getting rights.
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The article, on the other hand, says that they are taking 100% human DNA and implanting them into pig egg cells which have had their DNA removed.
And not just the nuclear DNA, but also the mitochondrial DNA is replaced.
Still, if you could do the same to a plant cell which has a distinctly different cell structure, would you still consider the resulting cells human or not?
Is a Mac Pro running Windows natively a Macintosh or a PC? What if you replace the firmware with a PC BIOS to make it even more compatible?
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It would be less distressing if the "tons" were spread across more than two or three kids.
Ooooh, I get it! :D (Score:2)
If I understand correctly that should be just like harvesting stem cells from human embryos, while sidestepping the right-wing-religious nutjobs who have a problem with destroying human embryos, 'cuz the embryos came from pigs! Sweet!
Just don't let those wackos know they'll basically be identical to human embryos ;) (again, if I understand correctly) Onward with science! :D
Hybrid embryo @home (Score:4, Funny)
I can't wait until this technology becomes available on the mass market.
I'm going to release all my hybrids under the GPL because I like to give back to the community.
H.G. Wells saw this coming (Score:2, Insightful)
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Haven't these people read The Island of Dr. Moreau?
Worse yet, haven't these people played Animal Crossing?
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I've only leafed through the brochures myself, but the wild life tour sounds good.
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Who remembers the Dr. Who episode? (Score:1)
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I can't cite any "Old" Dr. Who examples, but...
Series 1 "Aliens in London" or "World War Three". I don't remember which - but it was the "alien" created by the Slitheen to pilot the ship into Big Ben. Not a hybrid, but more of an anthromorphosed pig.
Series 3 "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks", the "Pig-slaves", which were genetically modified humans, altered by the Daleks (specifically the Cult of Skaro) for use in the their (failed) plan to take over the Earth.
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Well, it was inevitable... (Score:1, Funny)
Part Man, Part Swine...... (Score:3, Funny)
This could be bad (Score:3, Funny)
Seinfeld (Score:4, Funny)
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Was not disappointed.
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He's a Pig man, I tell ya Jerry, I saw him!
I was hoping someone would find the Seinfeld reference in this news story!
Not so new (Score:1, Funny)
Pfft. This isn't that new.
I just got pulled over and tasered by a pig-man just this afternoon.
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You kept calling him "bro", didn't you?
Q. Are we not men? (Score:2, Insightful)
A. We are Devo!
Prior art (Score:2)
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But... (Score:1, Funny)
It is a very good idea. (Score:2)
Hyperpigs (Score:1)
So we're going to get the bad-ass hyperpigs from Revelation Space now, huh?
You don't frighten us, English pig-dogs! (Score:3, Funny)
Go and boil your bottom, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called Arthur King, you and all your silly English k-nnnnniggets. Thpppppt! Thppt! Thppt!
GALAHAD:
What a strange person.
ARTHUR:
Now look here, my good man--
FRENCH GUARD:
I don't wanna talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
lucky pig-man hybrids (Score:5, Funny)
They get the 30 minute orgasms, and they have the hands... well, you get the picture.
They also get to eat all they want, and they probably don't mind being called "pigs".
What's the big deal? (Score:3, Funny)
We got em here in Phoenix. They're 300lbs and ride around on electric scooters.
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What I'm waiting for... (Score:2)
The first pig / bird hybrid, then that'll be the day when a pig really will fly!
sick and wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
I do favor research into genetics and much of the medical advancement that might be made with it.
However, even the comments on this board show that people are made uncomfortable by this idea. Mostly jokes, that mask a certain discomfort from what I read.
The end result of such experimentation with human genomic material is the trivialization of the human person.
It is precisely that trivialization which has been the cause of every grossly unjust large scale act taken by human beings. The ability to see others as merely raw material to accomplish our goal is an underlying premise in the Nazi holocaust, white separatists movement, in slavery as was practiced in the American south , in the sweat shops of years past.
This kind of experimentation only re-enforces that idea, that human beings are nothing but animals, so why shouldn't they be treated like them?
It should not be allowed by any civilized nation and any nation that does allow it has already become less civilized by the very action.
It is precisely that trivilisation which has been the cause of every grossly injust large scale act taken by human beings. The ability to see others as mearly raw material to accomplish our goal is an underlying premise in the Nazi holocaust, white sepremists movement, in slavery as was practiced in the american south , in the sweat shops of years past.
This kind of experimentation only re-enforces that idea, that human beings are nothing but animals , so why shouldn't they be treated like them.
It should not be allowed by any civilized nation and any nation that does allow it has already become less civialized by the very action.
Don't worry (Score:1)
The Anthropomorphism of animals will help to offset things this time, maybe we can thanks the furries. Heaven forbid....
Re:sick and wrong (Score:4, Interesting)
So what are you suggesting that humans are then?
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This kind of experimentation only re-enforces that idea, that human beings are nothing but animals
So what are you suggesting that humans are then?
Soylent Green? Now with bacon flavor?
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I'm not suggesting that humans are or are not anything. I'm suggesting that there is a continuum of the value placed on human life.
on one end human beings and their life, the right to stay alive , regardless of ones state is literally treated as sacred and not even the highest government official or most well meaning scientist has the right to act otherwise.
On the other side human beings are no different then animals and there is no problem with using them up , as slaves, for experimentation or whatever el
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Sure, we have language and tool use, but just because we can't ascribe meaning to the languages (albeit simple and restricted) of other species doesn't mean that they aren't sentient.
Do dogs have a sense of self?
From the dogs I know, it's pretty evident that they do.
Birds? Yep - I know some parrots that are definitely individuals, taking a like or dislike to individual humans.
Pigs? I don't know, as I haven't been exposed to pigs for around 40 years, and the last time I i
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By your definition, I'm a beast - but then again, I'm proud to be so - a beast with language and tool use.
Hey that's the line I use on the ladies!!!
/. so that is obvously untrue, but darnit it's funny!
Yes I'm on
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more to the point, the blurrier this line is made , by technology and law, the more difficult it becomes to make arguments that support treating people better then animals.
Already in spain, they are attempting to pass a law that grants the 'human rights' to all of the large apes.
The point it gets down to is. If I can eat a Pig, why can't I eat a man. If I can enslave a pig, why not a man? What makes a man more valuable then a pig, besides what the man can do?
What if I genetically engineer a pig that can d
A quote from Chairman Yang (Score:2)
Why do you insist that the human genetic code is "sacred" or "taboo"? It is a chemical process and nothing more. For that matter -we- are chemical processes and nothing more. If you deny yourself a useful tool simply because it reminds you uncomfortably of your mortality, you have uselessly and pointlessly crippled yourself.
* Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Looking God in the Eye"
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because humans are "sacred".
The less sacred they are the more easily exploited they are. The more easily exploited the less trust individuals in society can have of one another and in the end the fabric of that society is compromised or destroyed.
Answer me this question. Why should murder be illegal?
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> The end result of such experimentation with human genomic material is the trivialization of the human person.
Funny you should mention that. The main problem with this planet is the fact that humans don't see themselves as a trivial part of the cosmos.
Too many of us put a lot of stock in faiths (be they Jewish, Christian or Islamic) that tell us that we have an imaginary friend called God, Jahweh or Allah who created this world specifically for us and who cares for us only.
The extreme solipsism this bre
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The problem with the holocaust, white separatists, slave traders, Rwandan genocide, etc. isn't the idea that human beings are nothing but animals - it's taking the view that other racial / tribal groups are lesser beings than your Aryan / WASP / slave owner / Hutu group.
Genetics has nothing to do with the atrocities of the past (eugenics aside) - it's pure and simple
Godwin's Law (Score:2)
Godwin's Law violation detected in line four. Please report to HR for ontological realignment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law [wikipedia.org]
Just another reason (Score:1, Funny)
For my wife to call me a "pig"
lucky pig-man hybrids (Score:1)
What could possibly go wrong?! (Score:4, Insightful)
Does anyone see the inherent danger of making a hybrid which could create an evolutionary path for diseases which are isolated in pigs to infect humans and vice versa?
Humans wiped out by a virus never able to get a grip on human DNA and/or pigs wiped out by viruses never able to infect pigs.
This is no joke. This stuff is crazy and a real concern. Just because it is a well researched and studied idea, doesn't mean its a good idea.
Fuck asteroids and global warming, genetic research will wipe us out long before the other methods by which we've been seeking to kill ourselves.
Now the theological question, does man-pig have a soul? Will it go to heaven? What if it has intelligence? I mean, G. W. Bushpig. couldn't be much smarter.
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That 'attempt to derive embryonic stem cells' is not going to leave a viable embryo behind. Sorry, no man-pigs, just cells to culture and use for heart repair.
If the stem cells are used in people there *will* be pig/human hybrid DNA exposed to real viruses. These viruses may quickly adapt to the pig DNA and may be able to infect pigs with human diseases. Worse, maybe viruses infecting pigs will infect the eventual outcome of the stem cells and find a way to adapt to human cells. Thus introducing a virus tha
Frankenpiggy over period? (Score:2, Interesting)
I am moderately surprised that this type of research is still going on/causing such controversy.
One would think that with all the evidence pointing at things like:
Multipotential Stem Cells from Menstrual Blood [biotech-weblog.com],
Menstrual Blood Can Provide Adult Stem Cells [taragana.net],
Menstrual Blood: A Valuable Source Of Multipotential Stem Cells? [sciencedaily.com],
Stem Cells Have Utility in Fighting Disease> and [reuters.com]
New type of stem cell from menstrual blood [upi.com]
would have convinced these scientists to give up splicing
South park reference (Score:2)
"Killlllllllllll me..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douche_and_Turd [wikipedia.org]
Meh...it has all been done before (Score:1)
Approval for Bears next? (Score:1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ManBearPig/ [wikipedia.org]
"ManBearPig, half man, half bear, half pig, who roams the Earth and attacks humans".
It's just butchery of the finest kind (Score:1)
Now I understand why DNF is not released. (Score:2)
Pig brain farm?? (Score:2)
Wasn't this a plot point in "Ghost in the Shell: Man-Machine Interface"? Somebody cloned a bunch of pigs with human DNA in them and used them as a secret brain bank connected to the net or something...
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Britain == Island of Dr. Moroe?
Moreau.