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UK Approves Human-Pig Embryo Stem-Cell Harvest

Posted by timothy on from the but-I-know-plenty-of-half-pig-humans dept.

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.

4 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Re:sick and wrong by The+Creator · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?

    --

    FRA: STFU GTFO
  2. Frankenpiggy over period? by Magdalene · · 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,
      Menstrual Blood Can Provide Adult Stem Cells,
      Menstrual Blood: A Valuable Source Of Multipotential Stem Cells?,
      Stem Cells Have Utility in Fighting Disease> and
      New type of stem cell from menstrual blood
     

    would have convinced these scientists to give up splicing pig butts to people and go to the controversy free stem cells by now. Perhaps they don't wan't to get their fingers wet.

    Mr. Garrison's: "Well, I'm sorry, Wendy. But I just don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die." Was supposed to be irony, you know irony, its a metal, like goldy and silvery.

    -m

    --
    -Magdalene --"there are 10 types of people in the world, those who read binary, and those who don't"
  3. Re:sick and wrong by VanGarrett · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Those who can comprehend the congruities of human and animal genetics, but cannot comprehend that we are set apart from animals by our collective intelligence, ingenuity and sentiences, deserve to be treated as animals. It is only logical to observe that we are constructed of the same materials and by the same processes as our companions on this planet. We are not silicon-based automatons, after all. It would be foolish of us to not exploit these similarities, if we can use them to improve ourselves, altogether. Let those who cannot tell the difference between themselves and the beasts, be beasts, themselves.

    --
    Learning about brewing beer, by brewing beer.
  4. Re:Somewhat misleading... by Pantero+Blanco · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Aren't humans also animals?


    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.