Biology Mix Up

Article: Human-animal embryo study wins approval

“Most support was expressed for the creation of so-called cytoplasmic hybrid embryos, in which a human cell is inserted into an empty animal egg. Other hybrid embryos, such as those created by fertilising an animal egg with human sperm, or vice versa, were less well supported.

In December, the government sparked a revolt by scientists, patient groups and medical researchers when it published a white paper containing proposals to outlaw almost all research into animal-human embryos. The research has since been backed by Nobel prizewinners, the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the Commons science and technology committee, and the government's chief science adviser, Sir David King.

In May, the government withdrew its opposition in a draft fertility bill and now seeks to outlaw only embryos created by mixing sperm and eggs from humans and animals. The bill will be put before parliament before the end of the year.”

All I can say is, at least for the moment, they are not allowing “DNA bestiality”.

Related: Greek Mythical gods Brought To Life

Greek Mythical gods Brought To Life

Apparently the UK is going to allow animal-human hybrids. The article claims “THE government yesterday bowed to pressure from scientists to allow the creation of hybrid animal-human embryos for stem-cell research.”

National Review Online had an article in 2002 speaking of this same issue of the mixing of human and animal DNA which it labeled as “transhumanism: a nascent and explicitly eugenic philosophy that advocates taking control of human evolution through gene modification.”. Some of their beliefs presented are “they hope will eventually lead to public acceptance of genetic manipulation — not just to improve health, but to change our very natures.” And “They claim humans should not merely be allowed to metamorphose themselves through surgery, cybertechnology, and the like, but should have the right to control the destiny of their genes by means of progeny design and fabrication.”

In 2005 there is an article by the Associated Press of MSNBC speaking of “a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs.” It is said “In the past two years, scientists have created pigs with human blood, fused rabbit eggs with human DNA and injected human stem cells to make paralyzed mice walk.” They do have worries though, as such: “Particularly worrisome to some scientists are the nightmare scenarios that could arise from the mixing of brain cells: What if a human mind somehow got trapped inside a sheep’s head?” But they must not be too scared for “In January, an informal ethics committee at Stanford University endorsed a proposal to create mice with brains nearly completely made of human brain cells.”

Apparently this bill in the UK asks for two things:

1] “allows scientists to create "cytoplasmic" hybrid embryos, which are 99.9 per cent human and 0.1 per cent animal, such as cow or rabbit.”

2] “allows human embryos to be altered by the introduction of animal DNA.”

Of course, “True hybrids - creatures created by the fusion of sperm and eggs - remain outlawed. In all cases, it remains illegal to allow hybrid embryos to grow for more than 14 days or for them to be implanted in a womb.”

Will we one day see movies made by real actors playing the parts of Greek gods instead of costumes and special effects? Hmmm…

Will scientists then use their creations to “prove” the macroevolution process of species to species jump is real?