British bid to create part cow, part human embryos : Melbourne Indymedia

Scientists in Britain have applied for permission to create part cow, part human embryos to be used in research on treating diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

They hope the procedure will provide a plentiful supply of stem cells, involving transferring nuclei containing DNA from human cells to cows' eggs.

At present, embryonic stem cells have to be obtained from unwanted early stage human embryos left over from in-vitro fertilisation treatment.

The proposal has been questioned by some ethics campaigners, who claim it could blur the line between animals and humans.

The application had been submitted to Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the body regulating embryo research, by the North-East England Stem Cell Institute, run by the universities of Durham and Newcastle, northern England.

Newcastle University lecturer Lyle Armstrong is leading the team and says the work is necessary in order to take stem cell research to the next stage.

But Scottish Council on Human Bioethics spokesperson Calum MacKellar disagrees.

"In this kind of procedure, you are mixing at a very intimate level [of] animal eggs and human chromosomes and you may begin to undermine the whole distinction between animals and humans," he said.

A decision on whether to grant permission for the work is expected within the next few months.

This is an unusually thoughtful article to find in the Indymedia cesspool.

I would submit that the distinction between humans and animals is largely an illusory one. We share something like 97% of our genes with chimpanzees, and I have yet to find one characteristic of humans that is not shared at some level by animals.

Nice mammaries on the picture, too.

where did u get the idea humans were anything other than animals, yea, I know, years of arrogance -- teaching in the cultural system.

The only distinction i am able to make is that human animals invented a superanimal (GOD) to enslave the species and destroy the planet.

Humans are a failed animal species, which will become apparent to all, soon enough.

The arrogance and vanity of the species is beyond measure.

A pseudo-intellectual tosser fastidiously wanked: ====================== This is an unusually thoughtful article to find in the Indymedia cesspool. [!] I would submit that the distinction between humans and animals is largely an illusory one. We share something like 97% of our genes with chimpanzee, and I have yet to find ONE characteristic of humans that is not shared at some level by [other] animals. ... ================================ I would submit that religion is one of those capacities you allude to, fuckwit.

I think there -is- a distinction, or set of distinctions,
however I don't find it to be particularly significant.
And I -do- find it very blurry already,
so I don't think that describes objection to the project very well.

did anyone hear the senator (was it bartlet?) who, late in the stem cell debate, casually noted that, with respect to so-called hybrid cloning, everyone cared about the sanctity of the human 'life', but no one had raised any concerns regarding the animal 'partner'.

*shrug*

to be honest, I just like the picture.

quote:
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to be honest, I just like the picture.
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Of course you do.

question of whether humans ought to be contained within certain paramaters of type because there's something worth preserving about the 'original' form,

or whether we should be free as we become capable to play with the idea of how the human form can be extended and altered.

Strange when supposedly 'conservative' politicians support bills on cloning embryos that take us further down the post-human path