Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.

38 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. As a matter of fact... by RobertB-DC · · Score: 5, Funny

    I *do* taste like bacon! Why do you ask?

    --
    Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
  2. But... by snl2587 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why not half man and half bearpig? That's the approval we're looking for!

  3. I can't wait until... by jhfry · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can't wait until my kid takes highschool biology and has to dissect a pig-man embryo.

    --
    Sometimes the best solution is to stop wasting time looking for an easy solution.
  4. Oblig. Doctor Who Reference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is obviously the work of the Daleks.

  5. Somewhat misleading... by MozeeToby · · Score: 5, Informative

    The summary seems to imply that they are creating embryos which combine genetic material from humans and pigs. The article, on the other hand, says that they are taking 100% human DNA and implanting them into pig egg cells which have had their DNA removed. I think it's safe to to say that there is a huge difference between the two ideas.

    1. Re:Somewhat misleading... by Bandman · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yes. One definitely prevents someone from tasting like bacon.

      --
      Check out my sysadmin blog!
    2. Re:Somewhat misleading... by SBacks · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The summary seems to imply that they are creating embryos which combine genetic material from humans and pigs. The article, on the other hand, says that they are taking 100% human DNA and implanting them into pig egg cells which have had their DNA removed. I think it's safe to to say that there is a huge difference between the two ideas.

      That may be true. But, its much more exciting to talk about manpigs than to talk about the similarities between a pig egg cell and a human egg cell.

    3. Re:Somewhat misleading... by stranger_to_himself · · Score: 4, Informative

      The summary seems to imply that they are creating embryos which combine genetic material from humans and pigs. The article, on the other hand, says that they are taking 100% human DNA and implanting them into pig egg cells which have had their DNA removed. I think it's safe to to say that there is a huge difference between the two ideas.

      They would still have pig mitochondrial DNA, even if the nuclear DNA was all replaced.

    4. Re:Somewhat misleading... by Richard_at_work · · Score: 2, Informative

      What is being created here is a cytoplasmic hybrid embryo, where the cells nucleus is fully human DNA, but the cells mitochondria is not replaced and that has a DNA signature of its own, meaning that the cells reproduce as human, but the embryos themselves are only considered to be 99.9% human, and 0.1% animal.

    5. Re:Somewhat misleading... by Schemat1c · · Score: 3, Informative

      ...but the embryos themselves are only considered to be 99.9% human, and 0.1% animal.

      Aren't humans also animals?

      --

      "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown
    6. Re:Somewhat misleading... by cac619 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes, and don't forget about the residual pig midichlorians that they would still have.

    7. Re:Somewhat misleading... by TheDreadSlashdotterD · · Score: 2, Funny

      How dare you consider humans in the same class as animals! After all, we humans have created a utopia and achieved world peace, unlike those animals that can't find the decency to use a bathroom.

      --
      I have nothing to say.
    8. Re:Somewhat misleading... by jez9999 · · Score: 2, Funny

      So are lawyers, doesn't stop them getting rights.

      --
      == Jez ==
      Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
    9. Re:Somewhat misleading... by MozeeToby · · Score: 3, Informative

      In the hybrid, the mitochondria mostly come from the egg, initially making up around half of the DNA by weight, and the team will do experiments in order to ensure that the trace of human mitochondrial DNA takes over, not least because it is designed to work with human nuclear DNA.

      Apparently they are trying to remove the Pig Mitochondria as well, or atleast make the human mitochondria dominant.

    10. Re:Somewhat misleading... by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 2, Funny

      ...And isn't it odd that these blasphemous crimes against nature are spearheaded by a man with the saintly name of Justin St. John?

    11. 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.

  6. Hybrid embryo @home by sakdoctor · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can't wait until this technology becomes available on the mass market.
    I'm going to release all my hybrids under the GPL because I like to give back to the community.

  7. H.G. Wells saw this coming by andre3001 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Haven't these people read The Island of Dr. Moreau?

    --
    Affordable Health Coverage
  8. Part Man, Part Swine...... by snspdaarf · · Score: 3, Funny

    .... It's Leisure Suit Larry on Ladies Night!

    --
    Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
  9. This could be bad by jbeaupre · · Score: 2, Funny

    All this experimenting is going to ruin traditional long pork.

    --
    The world is made by those who show up for the job.
  10. Seinfeld by clang_jangle · · Score: 3, Funny

    He's a Pig man, I tell ya Jerry, I saw him!

    --
    Caveat Utilitor
  11. No, it's the work of a Piccinini by tepples · · Score: 2, Funny

    "The Young Family" by Patricia Piccinini brings new meaning to the insult "pigdog".

  12. Q. Are we not men? by Mesa+MIke · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A. We are Devo!

  13. that's historically accurate by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Informative

    historically cannibalistic societies in the pacific did in fact call human flesh "long-pig"

    we really **do** taste like pig

    "the Marquesas Islands of Polynesia, where human flesh was called long-pig (Alanna King, ed., Robert Louis Stevenson in the South Seas, London: Luzac Paragon House, 1987: 45-50)."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism#Middle_Ages

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:that's historically accurate by dreamchaser · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's because our diets are very similar (omniverous) as well as many aspects of our biochemistry.

      Personally after civilization falls I'll be eating the vegans first though. Grain and veggie fed free range vegan...mmmm.

  14. Re:H.G. Wells saw this coming by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 2, Funny

    I've only leafed through the brochures myself, but the wild life tour sounds good.

    --
    Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
  15. You don't frighten us, English pig-dogs! by presidenteloco · · Score: 2, Funny

    Go and boil your bottom, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called Arthur King, you and all your silly English k-nnnnniggets. Thpppppt! Thppt! Thppt!
    GALAHAD:
    What a strange person.
    ARTHUR:
    Now look here, my good man--
    FRENCH GUARD:
    I don't wanna talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
  16. lucky pig-man hybrids by speedtux · · Score: 4, Funny

    They get the 30 minute orgasms, and they have the hands... well, you get the picture.

    They also get to eat all they want, and they probably don't mind being called "pigs".

  17. What's the big deal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    We got em here in Phoenix. They're 300lbs and ride around on electric scooters.

  18. sick and wrong by fish_in_the_c · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I do favor research into genetics and much of the medical advancement that might be made with it.

    However, even the comments on this board show that people are made uncomfortable by this idea. Mostly jokes, that mask a certain discomfort from what I read.

    The end result of such experimentation with human genomic material is the trivialization of the human person.

    It is precisely that trivialization which has been the cause of every grossly unjust large scale act taken by human beings. The ability to see others as merely raw material to accomplish our goal is an underlying premise in the Nazi holocaust, white separatists movement, in slavery as was practiced in the American south , in the sweat shops of years past.

    This kind of experimentation only re-enforces that idea, that human beings are nothing but animals, so why shouldn't they be treated like them?

    It should not be allowed by any civilized nation and any nation that does allow it has already become less civilized by the very action.

    It is precisely that trivilisation which has been the cause of every grossly injust large scale act taken by human beings. The ability to see others as mearly raw material to accomplish our goal is an underlying premise in the Nazi holocaust, white sepremists movement, in slavery as was practiced in the american south , in the sweat shops of years past.

    This kind of experimentation only re-enforces that idea, that human beings are nothing but animals , so why shouldn't they be treated like them.

    It should not be allowed by any civilized nation and any nation that does allow it has already become less civialized by the very action.

    --
    âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
    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. 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.
  19. Re:god shmod by Stormwatch · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you believe the feminazis, men are pigs already.

    --
    Circumcision is child abuse.
  20. What could possibly go wrong?! by mlwmohawk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does anyone see the inherent danger of making a hybrid which could create an evolutionary path for diseases which are isolated in pigs to infect humans and vice versa?

    Humans wiped out by a virus never able to get a grip on human DNA and/or pigs wiped out by viruses never able to infect pigs.

    This is no joke. This stuff is crazy and a real concern. Just because it is a well researched and studied idea, doesn't mean its a good idea.

    Fuck asteroids and global warming, genetic research will wipe us out long before the other methods by which we've been seeking to kill ourselves.

    Now the theological question, does man-pig have a soul? Will it go to heaven? What if it has intelligence? I mean, G. W. Bushpig. couldn't be much smarter.

    1. Re:What could possibly go wrong?! by bob_herrick · · Score: 2, Informative
      I think you need to go back and reread the refernce. This article from the UK makes it pretty clear that

      We will take skin cells from patients who have a mutation for certain kinds of heart disease (cardiomyopathy, which makes the heart lose its pumping strength) and put them into pig eggs after their chromosomes have been removed. We will then make embryos so that we can attempt to derive embryonic stem cells which will allow us to study some of the molecular mechanisms associated with these heart diseases.

      That 'attempt to derive embryonic stem cells' is not going to leave a viable embryo behind. Sorry, no man-pigs, just cells to culture and use for heart repair.

  21. OT: the game by FiloEleven · · Score: 2, Informative

    God dammit! I *did* just lose the game, and I had a winning streak of close to 4 years, my personal best!

    At least I know I'll be bringing other people down with me.

    --
    Your brain is not a computer.
  22. 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"
  23. Re:Not so new by pushing-robot · · Score: 2, Funny

    You kept calling him "bro", didn't you?

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?