Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Scientists in the UK have been accused of committing “emotional blackmail” by secretly creating human-animal hybrids in their labs while telling the public they’re doing so in order to “cure every illness known to mankind.”
The Daily Mail is reporting that 155 ‘admixed’ embryos which contain both human and animal genetic material, have been created since the introduction of that country’s Human Fertilisation Embryology Act in 2008. This Act legalized the creation of a variety of hybrids which include animal eggs fertilzed by human sperm, “cybrids” in which a human nucleus is implanted into an animal cell, and “chimeras” in which human cells are mixed with animal embryos. Legally, all such creations must be destroyed within 14 days.
Three labs in the UK – at King’s College London, Newcastle University and Warwick University – were granted licenses to carry out the research after the Act was passed into law.
However, none of these creations were made public until a Parliamentary question was asked which forced them to reveal what has been going on in their labs. When confronted about their work, scientists insisted the techniques used to develop these creatures may one day be used to treat a range of incurable illnesses.
“The reason for doing these experiments is to understand more about early human development and come up with ways of curing serious diseases, and as a scientist I feel there is a moral imperative to pursue this research,” said Professor Robin Lovell-Badge of the Medical Research Council’ s National Institute for Medical Research.
Lord David Alton, former member of Parliament who now sits as a crossbench member of the House of Lords, called this specious argument “emotional blackmail.”
“I argued in Parliament against the creation of human- animal hybrids as a matter of principle,” Lord Alton said. “None of the scientists who appeared before us could give us any justification in terms of treatment. Ethically it can never be justifiable – it discredits us as a country. It is dabbling in the grotesque.”
He continued: “At every stage the justification from scientists has been: if only you allow us to do this, we will find cures for every illness known to mankind. This is emotional blackmail. Of the 80 treatments and cures which have come about from stem cells, all have come from adult stem cells – not embryonic ones. On moral and ethical grounds this fails; and on scientific and medical ones too.”
Others question the motives behind the scientists’ silence.
‘I am aghast that this is going on and we didn’t know anything about it,” said Josephine Quintavalle, of the pro-life group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, to the Mail. “Why have they kept this a secret? If they are proud of what they are doing, why do we need to ask Parliamentary questions for this to come to light?”
She concluded: “The problem with many scientists is that they want to do things because they want to experiment. That is not a good enough rationale.”
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