Human-animal chimeras given go-ahead in the UK

Update: As expected, this procedure has been given the go-ahead:

Animal-human hybrid embryos could be created in British laboratories within months after the fertility regulator gave the controversial research its blessing.

Two teams of scientists are poised to start making cow-human hybrids for research into incurable diseases - with at least one project starting by the end of the year.

Reuters has found the story.

The UK Daily Mail reports:

The creation of part-human, part-animal embryos looks set to be approved by the fertility regulator tomorrow.

These "hybrid" embryos would be used for research into incurable diseases such as Alzheimer's.

The news follows a surprise Government decision not to ban the controversial research.

A shortage of human eggs has led two groups of scientists to appeal to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for permission to make hybrid embryos from human skin cells and animal eggs.

Cows' eggs are most likely to be used, because they are in plentiful supply.

[here, a graphic reproduced from the article:]

My summary: scientists say they do not have access to enough human eggs to support their research, so two teams from the UK are asking permission to use eggs from cows that have been killed for meat. They will remove the genetic material from these eggs and insert a complete human genetic code. This is a very similar to the technique used in cloning. Most countries, with the exception of China, have banned these types of techniques.

Back in late June, I posted on this same topic and would recommend reading that post if you want to understand the witness and teaching of the local bishops on this topic, which I summarized to be "Don't create human/animal hybrids, but if you do, treat them as humans if they have a preponderance of human genes." (I also posted several related links.) As I mentioned in my prior post, this pattern is similar to the Church's teaching on IVF, i.e., don't do it, but if you do, the embryos created are truly human and deserve to be treated as such.

Some context: Embryos with 99.9% human genetic code are still presumed to be human, and in keeping with human dignity do not deserve to be killed at fourteen days to have their cells harvested. Also, this kind of research still has no cures to its credit, and is undertaken despite the far better and demonstrable results obtained through adult stem cell research. Third and finally, there are several promising techniques being developed to "dedifferentiate" adult cells to a state of functioning like stem cells, which is what these scientists are attempting to produce through the unethical "forward process" of allowing normal embryonic growth, which begins with the creation of a human being that will eventually be killed for its stem cells.

So why the intense lobbying here and now?

Because scientists know that if you want to cook a frog, you put him in warm water first ....

[For those interested, here are the important details I came across in the current media coverage:]

• Like all embryonic research, this procedure will result in the creation of living embryos that will be destroyed.
• In May, Labour ministers "dramatically changed their minds" and refused to outlaw this research after initially-proposing a pan (which sparked a revolt among the scientific community).
• The final decision still rests with the license committee, due to meet in November.
• Dr David King, who works for research watchdog Human Genetics Alert, said: "We are not a pro-life group but creating embryos purely for the purpose of research turns the embryo into nothing more than a research tool and a source of raw biological material for experiments."
• "The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority [HEFA] is an independent regulator which oversees fertility treatment and embryo research. Its members include ethicists, churchmen and lay people, as well as fertility doctors and scientists." [the article concludes with brief bios of some of the people - I don't see any Catholic "churchmen" listed.]
• From the UK Telegraph: the embryos created will "contain about 99.9 per cent human material and 0.1 per cent animal". I have no idea how they compute that.
• "Meanwhile the Government has published a draft Human Tissues and Embryos Bill which would allow the creation of hybrids, but not so-called "true hybrids" - created by fertilising a human egg with animal sperm or vice versa. But a joint House of Commons and Lords committee scrutinising the draft Bill last month said all forms of hybrids should be allowed for research if regulators thought it beneficial."
• The majority of the article is concerned with analyzing the results of a 2,000 person poll, which evidently influenced the decision-making process.
• From the UK Daily Mail: "Dr Steven Minger, of King's College London, who heads one of the two teams, accepts that there is a "yuck factor" to the proposed work - but says the embryos would be human. The only remaining fragments of "cowness" would exist in machinery called mitochondria that provide the energy for the body's cells."
• Another explanation of the proposal: First, his team would take a single skin cell from the volunteer and inject it into an egg whose own nuclear DNA had been removed. After being kickstarted with an electric current, the egg would develop into a human embryo genetically identical to the human donor. Around six days after its creation, when it is still a cluster of around 150 cells - the embryo would be destroyed and harvested for embryonic stem cells."