Ethical concerns raised over human cells grown in monkey embryos
UK experts have called for public discussion and debate about the ethical and regulatory challenges on human-animal chimeras.
15 April, 2021 15:00
US scientists have grown human cells in monkey embryos with the aim to understand more about how cells develop and communicate with each other.
Researchers from the Salk Institute in California have produced what is known as monkey-human chimeras, with human stem cells – special cells that have the ability to develop into many different cell types – inserted in macaque embryos in petri dishes in the lab.
However, some ethicists in the UK have raised concerns, saying this type of work “poses significant ethical and legal challenges” and “opens Pandora’s box to human-nonhuman chimeras”.