杏吧原创s are responding angrily to claims by the Catholic church that a new bill currently before the UK Parliament 鈥渨ill allow scientists to create embryos that are half human, half animal鈥�.
Catholic churches across England and Wales read a to their congregations this week, and calling on Catholics to protest. British scientists have responded angrily that there are no such plans.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill due to be discussed later in 2008 in the UK House of Commons changes the regulations governing assisted reproduction and embryo research. It is strongly backed by the government and expected to become law next year.
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The Catholic Bishops鈥� Conference of England and Wales sent a letter to parishes which was read in churches on Sunday 20 January, saying the bill raised 鈥渒ey concerns鈥�. The leading concern was about hybrid embryos: 鈥渇or example, from the egg of a woman and sperm from an animal. To do this would be a radical violation of human dignity.鈥�
Treatments for disease
It is 鈥渁 radical violation of the truth鈥�, says Chris Shaw of King鈥檚 College London. He says experiments currently planned call for implanting an adult human cell into an animal egg, from which all the animal DNA is removed. The resulting embryo contains only human genes, and should produce embryonic stem cells genetically matching the donor.
Such 鈥渃ybrids鈥� are 鈥渄evoid of an animal genetic identity鈥�, says Stephen Minger, head of the stem cell lab at KCL, one of two UK labs that has applied to conduct such experiments.
鈥淲e are very disturbed that the Catholic bishops claim the bill will allow us to create half-human, half-animal embryos,鈥� says Lyle Armstrong of the second lab at Newcastle University.鈥�
鈥淭he aim of our experiments is to discover ways to make stem cells [to treat] human diseases,鈥� Armstrong says, 鈥渘ot to give birth to some abnormal chimera. Even if this were possible it has no scientific or moral justification and is in any case strictly prohibited by the legislation.鈥�
In fact, the does create rules for embryos created by fusing human and animal sperm or eggs, as well as for cybrids, and for chimeras or transgenic embryos created by adding animal cells or DNA, respectively, to human embryos.
None of these may be implanted in a woman, created without a licence, or kept longer than 14 days or the first signs of formation of a central nervous system.
鈥楥ommon humanity鈥�
A accompanying the bishops鈥� statement recognises that no British scientists are planning to create true hybrids using human and animal sperm and eggs.
However, they insist that even cybrids are a mixture of human and non-human which is not compatible with Catholic theology, and 鈥渇ails to respect our common humanity鈥� in secular terms.
鈥淭here must be some limits on what we allow scientists to do in the name of research,鈥� the UK paper states. Even though cybrids cannot be implanted now, 鈥渨ho knows if someone somewhere will implant it in an animal?鈥�
The British bishops are planning to rally support. Catholics constitute 8% of Britain鈥檚 population.
The bishops call on Catholics to join forces with other religious groups 鈥� and with environmentalists. 鈥淚f people are unhappy about genetically modified tomatoes, they should be made aware of proposals in the bill to allow the creation of genetically modified human embryos!鈥�
