Human-Animal Embryos Announced

[temi]

For the first time in Britain, researchers at Newcastle University in northern England said Tuesday they had created human-animal hybrid embryos, amid a political row over a disputed embryo research bill in parliament. According to the university, the research, which was first presented at a lecture in Tel Aviv on March 25, has yet to be published or verified, with a spokesman for the university saying that the institution "wouldn't claim it to be final at all."



source and full story.

[vicdigi]

I read a little about this yesterday. Scientists are going mad again meddling in business they shouldn't.

Cloning animals ok. Mixing humans with animals - different ballgame altogether.

[kappa84]

This is really weird man....

[KingPin]

Well it might put a whole new meaning to the saying "Hung like a donkey"

Be interesting what freaks they come out with tho.

KP

[kappa84]

Originally Posted by KingPin

Well it might put a whole new meaning to the saying "Hung like a donkey"

Be interesting what freaks they come out with tho.

KP

Interesting? Well, I'm not against science and experiments but man, this mixture doesn't sounds really good.
Don't want in the future to hide in forests because some huge humano-rats are chasing me to grab a piece of my throat...

Hmm interesting, it says that the embryo lasted for 3 days in the lab. I guess its ok as long as done under strict control with good precautions, something good may come out of it.

[vicdigi]

Originally Posted by KingPin

Well it might put a whole new meaning to the saying "Hung like a donkey"

Be interesting what freaks they come out with tho.

KP

Funny, from the man they Mr Kingpin

Originally Posted by KingPin

Well it might put a whole new meaning to the saying "Hung like a donkey"

Haha, man that was really funny

[xhan]

Its unnatural - what do they hope to gain from it. They can't do medical experiments because their human so the whole exercise is pointless.

Originally Posted by xhan

Its unnatural - what do they hope to gain from it. They can't do medical experiments because their human so the whole exercise is pointless.

The article to which temi linked to is particulalry thin on details, read this one

Reson for using cow egg quoted from article i linked to :

Using cow eggs reflects a short supply of human eggs. There are also ethical difficulties involved in collecting human eggs for research, as the donation process carries a small risk to women.

For what purpose they are creating these embryos :

The ultimate aim is to grow these for six days, and then to extract embryonic stem cells for use in research.

Once the technique has been tested, scientists hope to create cybrids from the DNA of patients with genetic diseases. The resulting stem cells could then be used as models of those diseases to provide insights into their progress and to test new treatments.

Why nothing monstrous will come out of this :

It is already illegal to culture human-animal embryos for more than 14 days, or to implant them in the womb of a woman or animal, and these prohibitions will remain in the new legislation.

Professor John Burn, a member of the Newcastle team, told the BBC: “This is licensed work which has been carefully evaluated. This is a process in a dish, and we are dealing with a clump of cells which would never go on to develop. It’s a laboratory process and these embryos would never be implanted into anyone.

I can't see why anyone should have any problem with this.