Ban pushed on human-animal hybrids

[flashl]

Source: Christan Examiner

WASHINGTON — A Republican and a Democrat in the U.S. Senate have combined their efforts once again in an attempt to prevent unethical research involving human-animal hybrid embryos.

Sens. Sam Brownback, R.-Kan., and Mary Landrieu, D.-La., have renewed their call for a ban on the creation of human-animal hybrids after a British agency approved such research. The senators had introduced the Human-animal Hybrid Prohibition Act, S. 2358, in mid-November.

Great Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) announced Jan. 17 it had licensed two research teams to create hybrid embryos. The scientists will inject human DNA into empty cow eggs to create hybrids that genetically are 99.9 percent human, The Times of London reported. The resulting embryo would not be permitted to develop beyond 14 days.

"The UK's decision to allow the creation of human-animal hybrids is short-sighted and further underscores our need here at home to enact the {ban}," Brownback said in a Jan. 18 written release. "What was once only science fiction is now becoming a reality, and we need to ensure that experimentation and subsequent ramifications do not outpace ethical discussion and societal decisions. History does not look kindly on those who violate the dignity of the human person."

Christan Examiner

Read more: http://www.christianexaminer.com/Articles/Articles%20Feb08/Art_Feb08_03.html

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Human-animal hybrids?

[Kolesar]

1. "What is the law?"

Don't want to talk about the war, so we will start a campaign on a "moral" issue.

"No spill blood"

[LeftishBrit]

2. So human-chimp hybrids can't be president any more?

[Birthmark]

3. Yes, we need to declare the US...

...a NO MANIMAL ZONE.

Won't someone please think of the puppies?

[MilesColtrane]

16. Rut Ro Reorge!

[RC]

4. They are going to outlaw Republicans?

that's wonderful news.

[trof]

5. Damn. I guess no centaurs then?

[kentauros]

20. No, no centaurs...

...but I'm fine with that. I'd rather wait until the technology can just make them like a copy machine. "Adobe GenetiShop" ;)

[IADEMO2004]

6. Will we have to give up our Humulin insulin?

Humulin is synthesized in a non-disease-producing special laboratory strain of Escherichia coli bacteria that has been genetically altered by the addition of the human gene for insulin production

[flashl]

7. Maybe it's too late to react?

The recombination of man and beast

If you've been laughing at those Neanderthal presidential candidates who still don't believe in evolution, it's time to sober up. Every serious scientist knows we evolved from animals. The question now is whether to put our DNA and theirs back together.

We've been putting baboon hearts, pig valves, and other animal parts in people for decades. We've derived stem cells by inserting human genomes in rabbit eggs. We've made mice with human prostate glands. We've made sheep with nearly half-human livers.

Why have we done this? To save lives. If you can't get a human heart valve, a pig valve will do. If you can't get human eggs to clone embryos for stem-cell research, rabbit eggs will do. If you can't use people as guinea pigs in gruesome but necessary experiments on human tissues, guinea pigs will do. All you have to do is put—or grow—the human tissues in the guinea pigs. You're free to inflict any disease or drug on a human system, as long as that human system lives in an animal.

[Solly Mack]

8. Chimeras are people too...and man's best friend

[Ian David]

9. Send Brownback and Landreu to House of Pain! n/t

[VWolf]

10. I'm in favor of hybrids

They get much better mileage than those clunky human-animal SUV's.

[mikeytherat]

12. So true! And those "E-85 flex-fuel" humans were almost as bad.

mikey_the_rat

[KaptBunnyPants]

11. Legislation like this is going to kill people.

I hope they realize that the cheap political points they get scaring people about half goat monsters rampaging through the countryside will cost actual people their lives. Hybridization of DNA is a useful technique for the exploration of the genome, and as such is a necessary component for the creation of gene therapies.

[Dr.Phool]

13. I'm glad they have so much important work to do.

They can't be bothered with investigations or impeachment, but they can outlaw "manimals" and investigate steroids in sports.

Brownback and Landrieu are 2 of the biggest airheads in Washington. They can probably get that bonehead, Michelle Bachmann from Minnesota to co-sponsor legislation in the house.

[flashl]

14. But, but ... they passed the light bulb legislation.

:sarcasm:

[CGowen]

15. They were doing it 8 or more years ago

Friday, 18 June, 1999, 10:48 GMT 11:48 UK
Details of hybrid clone revealed

Details of the first hybrid human embryo clone have been released.

The watershed achievement in biotechnology actually happened last November, but more information was revealed on Thursday. It was achieved using a cell from a man's leg and a cow's egg.

The scientists who created the clone see it as a significant step forward in the search for a way of producing human stem cells.

These are "master" cells that can develop into any type of cell - skin, bone, blood, etc. They are believed to have the potential to provide perfect-match tissue for transplantation and the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson's.

...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/371378.stm

[flashl]

17. True.

January 25, 2005

Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University in 2003 successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs... In Minnesota last year researchers at the Mayo Clinic created pigs with human blood flowing through their bodies. ... And at Stanford University in California an experiment might be done later this year to create mice with human brains... But creating human-animal chimeras—named after a monster in Greek mythology that had a lion's head, goat's body, and serpent's tail—has raised troubling questions:

What new subhuman combination should be produced and for what purpose? At what point would it be considered human? And what rights, if any, should it have?

There are currently no U.S. federal laws that address these issues...

Biotechnology activist Jeremy Rifkin is opposed to crossing species boundaries ... "There are other ways to advance medicine and human health besides going out into the strange, brave new world of chimeric animals," Rifkin said, adding that sophisticated computer models can substitute for experimentation on live animals...

Last year Canada passed the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, which bans chimeras. Specifically, it prohibits transferring a nonhuman cell into a human embryo and putting human cells into a nonhuman embryo.

Cynthia Cohen is a member of Canada's Stem Cell Oversight Committee, which oversees research protocols to ensure they are in accordance with the new guidelines.

She believes a ban should also be put into place in the U.S.

Creating chimeras, she said, by mixing human and animal gametes (sperms and eggs) or transferring reproductive cells, diminishes human dignity.

National Geographic News

Presently, I have a hard time reconciling, ‘to promote life’, ‘health benefits’, ‘for the betterment of mankind’, when a large segment of our population have been priced out of basic healthcare.

[newfie11]

18. Dean Koonz

WOW maybe they should read some of his books. As I remember several years ago he had one book where the baboons took over because they had human intelligence. Hey maybe it was true and their Republican.

[originalpckelly]

19. Gives new meaning to, "Man, your wife is a real cow!"

[GoddessOfGuinness]

21. Does this mean Spiderman can't save us?