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 Animals and humans have co-existed with each other for millions of years. Your own pets have stood by you in good times, bad times, sickness, and in health. But what if you had known all along that your pet could hold the secret to better health—and maybe even save your life?
Ever since Dolly the Sheep was cloned in 1997, stem cell research has multiplied like so much binary fission. Although stem cell research is banned in the United States, it is permitted in the United Kingdom (UK) it is permitted under licensure from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). That's "Fertilization with a "z" for us American spellers.
In 2006, HFEA received applications from teams at Kings' College London and Newcastle University who wanted to insert human genetic material into animal eggs to create an embryo that would produce stem cells. If you're asking yourself "Why would they want to do that", the answer is simple. Scientists believe that studying stem cells will help them to understand diseases and create new therapies for conditions such Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
One problem with this approach is that there is a very limited supply of human eggs available. Although some women donate eggs, the process can be physically demanding and dangerous for the donor. To work around this shortage, some researchers have suggested using animal eggs as replacements.
Using animal eggs in such a way would create a cytoplasmic hybrid embryos—embryos that are created with animal eggs using cell nuclear replacement (CNR). Nuclear cell replacement removes the genetic material from the egg (in this case, the animal egg) and replaced with a nucleus containing genetic information from a donor cell (in this case, a human cell).
This equation may seem like it would equal a human cell, but it doesn't. Although the animal DNA has been removed, the mitochondria remain. Because the mitochondria contain traces of animal DNA, a hybrid or chimera embryo is formed. (The actual process of creating hybrid embryos is begun post-fertilization.) The embryos are grown for five to six days in a laboratory setting. After the growth period, the stem cells are removed from the embryo, thereby destroying it.
The creation of animal-human hybrids is a topic of great debate, and one that raises both political and social concerns. In December of 2006 the British government proposed a revision of the Human Ferilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act, a statute which was passed in 1990, to clarify their position on animal-human hybrids and prohibit further research. In March of 2007, however, the House of Commons Science and Technology committee published a paper in which concluded by saying that it wouldn't support a ban on such research since it would "undermine the UK's leading position in stem cell research and the international reputation of science in the UK". The paper also expressed concern that a ban on hybrid research would only encourage people to take their research out of the UK. For now, HFEA has held-off on making a decision about moving forward with this research.
Although stem cell research is permitted in the United Kingdom, some practices are outlawed. For example, creating a true hybrid embryo for non-scientific purposes and attempting to insert an animal-human embryo into a woman are illegal.
Social concerns about these animal-human hybrids vary from disgust at the idea to questions about the status of an embryo as a human being. Naturally, people also want to know "what would be next" if this idea were to go forward. There are also general objections to the mixing of DNA. Some people even claim that these "freak" embryos would do nothing more than to prove that it can be done.
Whether this research will be successful or not remains unknown. HFEA has said that it would decide the matter in autumn of 2007, so stayed tuned. Personally, I think that this is an interesting proposal, and one about which I'm anxious to know the outcome. Here are my questions:
- It's said that there would be less than 1% animal DNA in these hybrids, isn't that about less that the difference between humans and chimpanzees? (I believe we share 98% percent of our DNA with them).
- What would happen if it wasn't illegal to let an embryo mature?
- Would the embryo eventually die, or would a hybrid be able to grow into a functioning form or animal-human?
What do you think and what do you want to know?
Resources:
http://www.infowars.com/articles/brave_new_world/chimera.htm
http://www.hfea.gov.uk/docs/HFEA_Final.pdf
http://www.hfea.gov.uk/en/1517.html
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmsctech/272/272i.pdf
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Re: Human-Animal Hybrids
