Animal-human hybrid cloning deferred
13:43 11 January 2007

Controversial proposals to make embryos by merging human and animal
material remain on hold following a decision on Thursday by the UK
regulator of embryo research.

Under intense pressure from scientists to allow three UK teams to make
the embryos, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority decided
instead to hold a public consultation on the issue.

The researchers want to use cow or rabbit eggs as a short cut to making
cloned embryos which could yield human embryonic stem cells. These are
vital for research into major illnesses such as Parkinson's disease
and motor neurone disease. The cells created would match those from
patients and contain the defects that cause the diseases, and so could
be studied to unravel the causes of the disease and test new drugs.

However, opponents of embryo research say the creation of embryos from
animal and human cells is unethical, and should not be allowed. (For
more on this, see Frankenbunny, human, or cybrid?).

This deferral of permission for (so-called) hybrid stem cell research
by the HFEA over here was actually quite encouraging. The reason is
that the original news of the project got off to a bad start with signs
that some popular newspapers were already beginning to stir up powerful
opposition to it. And, because the government have appointed some
strong religious believers as members of the HFEA they might have taken
advantage of this and caused a quick, totally negative, decision to
have been taken. Trying to reverse this would have been very difficult
because the popular press would have exacerbated the argument further.
Any negative decision would undoubtedly have been stuck for some years
and politically difficult to unglue.

Ragland,

Thanks for starting this thread, and thanks to Keith for extending
on it.

Hybridization techniques work both ways, of course -- such that, not
only can animals be hybridized through introduction of human genes
into their zygotes to make chimeras (as in the provision of current
laboratory mice with human immune systems) but, also, the same
technology is capable of producing primarily human chimeras with
characteristics of animals. Chimerization is much easier than
post-fertilization gene manipulations such as, say, inserting a
"missing gene" into a human, during gestation or post partally.

With the mouse-human chimeras being old hat now, the prospect
of our making a rabbit-human chimera doesn't seem quite so stark.
But those who consider part-human chimerizations a slippery slope
certainly have some real and valid issues, just as do those like you
and Keith and I, who perceive much good to be derivable from it.