Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Eat Mor Chikin

The BBC says:

UK scientists have applied for permission to create embryos by fusing human DNA with cow eggs.

Researchers from Newcastle University and Kings College, London, have asked the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for a three-year licence.

The hybrid human-bovine embryos would be used for stem cell research and would not be allowed to develop for more than a few days.

But critics say it is unethical and potentially dangerous.

Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris -- a member of the Commons Science and Technology Select Committee -- said: "If human benefit can be derived by perfecting therapeutic cloning techniques or from research into subsequently-derived stem cells, then it would actually be immoral to prevent it just because of a 'yuck' factor."

Stem cell research is one of the most promising areas of medical science.

Stem cells are the body's master cells and five-day-old embryos are packed with them -- each with the potential to turn into any tissue in the body.

It is this ability which scientists want to harness to treat diseases such as Parkinson's Disease, strokes and Alzheimer's Disease.

To do that, they need to have access to thousands of embryos for research.

Short supply

The problem is that human eggs for research are in short supply and to obtain them women have to undergo surgery.

That is why scientists want to use cows' eggs as a substitute.

They would insert human DNA into a cow's egg which has had its genetic material removed, and then create an embryo by the same technique that produced Dolly the Sheep.

The resulting embryo would be 99.9% human; the only bovine element would be DNA outside the nucleus of the cell.

It would, though, technically be a chimera -- part-human, part-animal.

The aim would be to extract stem cells from the embryo when it is six days old, before destroying it.

Ironic, isn't it, that when we banish all thought of God -- or the traditional humility granted to us through the notion of The Fall -- it is at that moment, in an intoxicating fit of rebellion in the name of "science," in the names of "reason," "freedom" and "breaking the shackles of oppressive constructs," that we render ourselves implausible and inevitably predestine our upcoming prominence on the Endangered Species List.

I don't know about you, but I've just become a devoted Chick-Fil-A man.

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