Researchers plan to create human-cow embryos
UK scientists have applied for permission to
create embryos by fusing human DNA with cow eggs.
Gamers are the only people who need worry about minotaurs!
UK scientists have applied for permission to create embryos by fusing human DNA with cow eggs.
Researchers from Newcastle University and Kings College, London, have asked the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for a three-year licence.
The hybrid human-bovine embryos would be used for stem cell research and would not be allowed to develop for more than a few days.
Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris - a member of the Commons Science and Technology Select Committee - said: “If human benefit can be derived by perfecting therapeutic cloning techniques or from research into subsequently-derived stem cells, then it would actually be immoral to prevent it just because of a ‘yuck’ factor.”
Human eggs for research are in short supply and to obtain them women have to undergo surgery.
That is why scientists want to use cows’ eggs as a substitute.
They would insert human DNA into a cow’s egg which has had its genetic material removed, and then create an embryo by the same technique that produced Dolly the Sheep.
The resulting embryo would be 99.9% human; the only bovine element would be DNA outside the nucleus of the cell.
The quality and the viability of stem cells would then be checked to see if the technique had worked.
Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, head of developmental genetics, National Institute for Medical Research, said: “This is a very rational step: to learn what you can using animal eggs, which are readily obtainable, before moving on to valuable human eggs when or if this becomes necessary.”
All we’re describing here are procedures that make scientific sense, economic sense, sense to the average citizen who hasn’t an ego tied up in politics or religion. Unfortunately, you still have to get past the people who make the most noise about “protecting” us all from research and knowledge.
Posted: Tue - November 7, 2006 at 06:27 AM