UK regulators, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, gave scientists the permission to try a new human-animal embryos for helping research. This permission concerns now two centers, King’s College London and Newcastle University, which be able to practise for one year. For the other centers, each case will be examined by the HFEA before receiving an authorisation.
It was crucial for disease researches, experts said. According to Dr Stephen Minger and colleages from King’s College London, this could be an answer for genetic diseases. “We have already done a lot of the work by transferring animal cells into cow eggs so we hope to make rapid progress.” Dr Amstrong said, from Newcastle University. Scientists will use it in order to merger human cells in animal eggs and extract some stem cells. Legally, they will be destroyed after a couple of week studying.
The huge question is the risk, on the long run, to end-up in a new animal-human hybrid. According to John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), this decision is desastrous “for human dignity. (…) The deliberate blurring of the boundaries between humans and other species is wrong and strikes at the heart of what makes us human”. Dr Peter Saunders of Christian Medical Fellowship esteems this decision as “unethical and unnecessary”.
