UK Stem Cell Vote: It's decision time for 'hybrid' human-animal embryos
By Marisa Taylor,
Red Herring
| 01. 05. 2007
[Quotes CGS's Marcy Darnovsky]
The United Kingdom's regulatory body for stem cell and fertility research will vote Wednesday to determine whether a team of British scientists should be allowed to use animal eggs in human embryonic stem cell research. And like a science fiction movie gone awry, the public frenzy has reached fever pitch over the research that critics say crosses the delicate human-animal divide.
Chris Shaw, a neurology professor at King's College London, and Ian Wilmut, the Edinburgh University scientist famous for cloning Dolly the sheep, have submitted a proposal to the U.K.'s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HEFA) to use a process called cell nuclear replacement for the production of stem cell lines. Human DNA would be implanted into an animal egg so that it starts dividing, and then removed from the animal egg to be grown into different kinds of stem cells.
The scientists say that the use of animal eggs to create human stem cells could be beneficial in that the process avoids the use of human eggs or fetuses. But the possibility of using animal eggs to host human...
Related Articles
GeneWatch UK has prepared a briefing on the genetic modification of nature for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Congress in October 2025
The upcoming Congress claims to be “where the world comes together to set priorities and drive conservation and sustainable development action.” A major concern for those on the outside is that the Congress may advance plans to develop and encourage the use of synthetic biology in nature conservation. This could at first glance sound like...
By Peter de Kruijff, ABC News | 09.16.2025
Do you wonder where your meat comes from? Maybe it is organic, wild harvested, or farmed.
Or perhaps it was designed in a lab.
Faster-growing fish, heat-tolerant cows and disease-resistant pigs are among a new class of animals that are...
By Roni Caryn Rabin, The New York Times | 08.25.2025
Scientists have dreamed for centuries about using animal organs to treat ailing humans. In recent years, those efforts have begun to bear fruit: Researchers have begun transplanting the hearts and kidneys of genetically modified pigs into patients, with varying degrees...
By Staff, GMWatch | 08.10.2025
Protesting Against Monsanto and GMOs
by William Murphy, CC2.0
GMWatch has published a series of interviews with the late scientist Dr Arpad Pusztai, conducted in March 2002 by the journalist Andy Rowell, as part of his research for his book, Don't...