I am not sure that either of those essentially biblical words ‘made’ or ‘created’ are the appropriate ones for this monstrous and perverted piece of scientific hubris. The BBC tells us lightly that the experiment has ‘sparked ethical debate’. I should think it has.
The more important question is how this research was deemed acceptable and licensed in the first place? It took place in California, which may be part of the answer. The researchers are reported to have said that their work, which was published in the journal
Cell, offered a way of studying early human development. ‘As we are unable to conduct certain types of experiments in humans, it is essential that we have better models to more accurately study and understand human biology and disease,’ said Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, from the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, California.
Human-monkey embryo deeply unethical, says Catholic bioethicist cruxnow.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cruxnow.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Hybrid monkey-human embryos created in lab for first time in scientific breakthrough
The groundbreaking work could one day lead to a vast increase in the number of available organs for transplant, but some critics say it raises serious ethical questions
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The cells were inserted in macaque embryos in petri dishes
Credit: REUTERS
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 .
Hybrid monkey-human embryos created in Chinese lab raise difficult ethical questions
The groundbreaking work paves the way for more scientific breakthroughs
Macaque embryos were used in the experiment (Image: Juergen Ritterbach/Getty Images)
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Scientists have produced the first ever monkey-human chimeras with human stem cells in a bid to understand more about how cells develop and communicate with each other.