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Green Light for Human/Animal Hybrids

Posted by Zonk on from the monkeymen-soon-to-be-our-servants dept.

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."

31 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. I can hear the excuses already... by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    "Your Honour, I was just working on creating a Human/Sheep hybrid."

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:I can hear the excuses already... by JustShootMe · · Score: 3, Funny

      I was going to make a comment about men in Montana being light years ahead of this research, but you beat me to it.

      At least this way the sheep aren't nervous.

      --
      For linux tips: http://www.linuxtipsblog.com
    2. Re:I can hear the excuses already... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Your Honour, I was just working on creating a Human/Sheep hybrid."
      This is one area the governments of the world would love to see success. They have been trying to turn people into sheep for untold millenia, to varying degrees of success.
    3. Re:I can hear the excuses already... by russ1337 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hey! I'm a New Zealander!!!

      You did remind me of the story my uncle told me about the time he was on the farm with an Australian businessman. Coming over the brow of the hill on the tractor he saw a sheep with its head stuck between the wires in the fence, so being a true New Zealander he did what you suggested - attempted to make a human / sheep hybrid.

      When he hopped back on the tractor he said to the Australian "Hey mate, do you want to have a go?" And before he could say anthing more the Australian businessman got down off the tractor, walked over to the sheep and ....



      Stuck his head through the wires.

    4. Re:I can hear the excuses already... by brjndr · · Score: 4, Funny

      My roommate in law school was from New Zealand, and this was only joke Kiwi's I knew at the time...

      Q. How does a New Zealander find a sheep in the tall grass?

      A. Very satisfying.

    5. Re:I can hear the excuses already... by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 5, Funny

      Q: Why to Scotsmen wear the kilt?

      A: So the sheep don't hear a zipper.

  2. Sweet! by foreverdisillusioned · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dibs on platypus!

  3. People in Iarge? by faloi · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do they speak English in Iarge?

    --
    "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
  4. people in large are OK by KillerCow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The decision to allow the embryos was made after research showed that people in large are OK with the idea


    I am glad that we are trusting the unwashed masses to make important technical decisions that they know nothing about. If Britney says it's safe, then it must be. God bless Democracy.

    I, for one, welcome our species hopping virus overlords.
    1. Re:people in large are OK by ajs · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

  5. paging... by debatem1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dr. Moreau unavailable for comment.

  6. Public Permission? by ranton · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Since when should the perception of the public decide what research is done and which is not? I can at least understand why a panel such as the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority would want to have their opinion heard, but why would they waste their time consulting the public?

    Why even create such a government body if they were just going to conduct opinion polls to make their decisions? If you are going to assemble a panel of scientists and ethicists to regulate the scientific community (well at least in the UK), at least you would hope they would use their expertise instead of referring to the public.

    --
    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    1. Re:Public Permission? by Serge_Tomiko · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Since when should the perception of the public decide what research is done and which is not?

      In the United States, governmental authority and sovereignty rests with the "public". Presumably, their perceptions guide their exercising of their power.

      I have always found the issue of sovereignty a bit strange in the United Kingdom. In the end, the law either derives from the people or the monarch. In either case, a panel of scientists is irrelevant as they do not exercise political power, at least not beyond that of any other citizen.

    2. Re:Public Permission? by ranton · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe because the peasants are helping to pay for it?

      Public money spent on things the public wants is what charity organizations are for. Spending money on things for the good of the people, but that is something the average person wouldnt want to pay for himself, is what the government is for.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
  7. Suddenly... by pwnies · · Score: 5, Funny

    Furries across the world rejoiced in their parents' basements.

  8. better late than never by I8TheWorm · · Score: 4, Informative

    Approved over 4 years after Chinese scientists 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."

    --
    Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
  9. Awww... by pla · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The embryos would then be destroyed within 14 days.

    So, anyone else consider that the single most dissapointing part of this?

    They'd almost certainly not live long enough to ever call them infants, but even in the steps they do last through, we could learn so much by watching how they develop differently from either human or other-half embryos.

    And if they actually lived to term, well, I would consider their cognitive develpment nothing short of fascinating to observe.

  10. How is this better? by shadylookin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I know a lot of people are against cloning human embryos extracting the stem cells and then aborting them. So how on earth could splicing humans cells with animals, harvesting it, and then aborting it possibly be construed as better? Personally I don't care either way, but I can't see how you could be happier with cross species embryos than with good old cloning from a moral standpoint

    1. Re:How is this better? by Surt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A significant number of the religious fundies would say that a half human monster thing cannot have a soul, so you get a big win over the pure human when you kill it (note that most fundies are not vegetarians, for example, and are perfectly ok with killing animals for research).

      --
      "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
    2. Re:How is this better? by DigitalReverend · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As a student of theology I might be able to shed some light on this.

      In the eyes of religion, the human egg and the human sperm are considered potential humans, even more so when joined. Hence the reason it is considered sinful when a man "spills his seed".

      Except for the reproductive cells, any other human cell cannot be considered a potential human, therefore using some skin cells and implanting them in a cow egg and aborting the fetus after 14 days would not be considered human abortion.

      Basically this is a loophole around the whole ethics thing as long as the fetus is terminated. A whole new bag of worms is waiting to be opened if one of those embryos goes to term and a 8lb 10oz bouncing blue eyed huvine (boman?) is born.

      --
      I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
    3. Re:How is this better? by zoips · · Score: 3, Funny

      If it dances like a Tauren I'll uphold it as my new god.

  11. Re:Planet of the Apes by calebt3 · · Score: 4, Funny

    No can do. Our nuclear arsenal would be obsolete overnight.

  12. Island by Dan+East · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The embryos would then be destroyed within 14 days.

    I have a hunch that some lab tech would end up with a private Island of Doctor Moreau in their garage, via a few test tubes that were somehow misplaced at the lab.

    Dan East

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  13. Re:Green light for animal cruelty by pla · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is animal cruelty, plain and simple.

    Because 14-day-old embryos have such well-developed nervous systems that they can appreciate (nevermind even "experience") pain?



    Do you know how many embryos are going to be destroyed

    No. Do you?

    More importantly - So what? At that stage of life, you have organic scum in a tube. What it could someday turn into has no relevance to its status at that developmental level.



    There are better ways to get stem cells people.

    Yes - Yes, we do indeed have better ways. But the goddamned fundies don't seem inclined to let us use the numerous extra embryos from human fertility therapies (nevermind abortions), so we need to find new, even more absurd, ways to get them.

  14. Re:Green light for animal cruelty by thanatos_x · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So you not only take issue with human stem cells, but animal stem cells as well. You have concern for the small number (say 10,000) of animals which may die to provide the embryos.

    Somehow you seem more horrified that those 10,000 die to provide embryos (which you so clearly point out can be used to ease human suffering) than the millions upon millions of animals that die every year to feed us (inefficiently, from a calorie viewpoint), or the thousands of animals which get tested on.

    Why people care so much about things which are never self-aware, let alone capable of feeling pain, yet turn a blind eye to the suffering of people (and animals) that is very real astounds me. Darfur? No, you're more outraged about stem cell research.

    You can have moral issues with both, but please get your priorities straight. Hundreds of thousands dying and starving for NO good reason compared to cells with hundreds of deaths that were going to happen anyway (abortion isn't going away, even if made illegal) that may alleviate the suffering of millions.

    --
    I am not an expert. If I am misled in something, please correct me.
  15. Manbearpig by biscon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Something half pig, half manbear must come out of this.
    Better call Al Gore.

  16. TFA didn't mention... by MiniMike · · Score: 3, Funny

    Will there be overlords?

  17. Validates the Religious Right by goldspider · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Remember how everyone said "Aww shucks! We're just going to use cloning for stem cell research! We'd NEVER do anything funky like crossing humans and animals!" in response to cloning critics?

    Well now those critics have been validated, and the Religious Right has more ammunition with which they can stall actual valid medical research.

    This is what unrestrained morbid curiosity gets you. Too bad productive science as a whole has to suffer.

    --
    "Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
  18. Re:There already are UK furry conventions by cansado · · Score: 5, Funny

    See the furry convention map for more worldwide.

    No.

  19. Re:Green light for animal cruelty by zoips · · Score: 3, Funny

    Because 14-day-old embryos have such well-developed nervous systems that they can appreciate (nevermind even "experience") pain?

    So, it is not cruel when one does not "appreciate" or "experience" pain? You could then sedate a person to the point of being incapable of doing either in order to morally kill them? Your argument is stupid and you know it, so why bother posting it?
  20. Ridiculously Misleading Article Title by calcapt · · Score: 5, Informative

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

    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

    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.