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Regarding the Instruction Dignitas PersonaeAim In recent years, biomedical research has made great strides, opening new possibilities for the treatment of disease, but also giving rise to serious questions which had not been directly treated in the Instruction Donum vitae (22 February 1987).  A new Instruction, which is dated 8 September 2008, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, seeks to provide some responses to these new bioethical questions, as these have been the focus of expectations and concerns in large sectors of society.  In this way, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith seeks both...

A RACE of half-man, half-beast “humanzees” could be created under new fertility laws, MPs were warned last night. Loopholes would let scientists fertilise animals with human sperm, the Commons was told during a debate on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Tory MP Nadine Dorries claimed it would revive memories of Soviet tyrant Stalin’s attempt to create the “ultimate soldier” in the 1920s by cross-breeding humans and apes. Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson conjured up the spectre of a monster from Greek legend, saying: “The image that people find most abhorrent is of scientists producing GM babies or cloned adults...

London, Oct 24, 2008 / 04:45 am (CNA).- In what one pro-life leader called a “deadly day in the history of Britain,” the House of Commons on Wednesday approved legislation allowing scientists to create animal-human hybrids for medical research. The bill also allows the creation of “savior siblings” genetically matched to sick siblings and eases access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) for lesbians and single women by eliminating requirements for clinics to consider a child’s need for a father.The Human Embryology and Fertilization Bill passed by 355 votes to 129, Agence France Presse reports. The bill now heads to the House...

The Times of London May 19, 2008 MPs back creation of human-animal embryos The amendment to ban all admixed embryos was defeated by 336 votes to 176. The prohibition on true hybrids was defeated by 286 votes to 223 Mark Henderson and Francis Elliott British scientists will be allowed to research devastating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s using human-animal embryos, after the House of Commons tonight rejected a ban. An amendment to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill that would have outlawed the creation of “human admixed embryos” for medical research was defeated in a free vote by a...

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill has provoked furious dissent from MPs and Church leaders. Hybrid embryos The Bill permits the creation of hybrid or "chimera" embryos, where human DNA is inserted into an animal cell for research. Implanting them into a woman or animal will be forbidden and embryos must be discarded after use. Pro-life campaigners and Catholic leaders are bitterly opposed. Abortion The Bill has provisions to allow amendments to the Abortion Act 1967. MPs are expected to push for a reduction of the 24-week limit to 20. Embryo screening Embryos created in fertility treatment can be screened...

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 transplanting baboon hearts, pig valves and other animal parts into people for decades. We've derived stem cells by inserting human genomes into rabbit eggs. We've created mice that have human prostate glands. We've made sheep that have half-human livers. Last week, Britain's Academy of Medical Sciences reported that scientists have created "thousands of examples of transgenic animals"...

Human-animal hybrid embryos conceived in the laboratory - so-called “chimeras” - should be regarded as human and their mothers should be allowed to give birth to them, the Roman Catholic Church said yesterday. Under draft Government legislation to be debated by Parliament later this year, scientists will be given permission for the first time to create such embryos for research as long as they destroy them within two weeks. But the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, in a submission to the Parliamentary joint committee scrutinising the draft legislation, said that the genetic mothers of “chimeras” should be able to...

WRITERS ranging from ancient Greek and Hindu poets to novelist Michael Crichton have all envisioned the fictional possibility of creating human-animal hybrids. ... Instead, policymakers should use the following simple principle as a guide: one should treat a recipient of transferred humanity with the same level of respect as an organism with inborn humanity -- in other words, a human being. ... But nearly everyone agrees that the capacities for language, consciousness, or rationality are probably among them. If a human-animal chimera (such as a monkey with a human-like brain) comes to possess any of these qualities, then it would...

London, England (LifeNews.com) -- As the brave new world of bizarre scientific research expands further, pro-life advocates are increasingly forced to focus on the human rights of unborn children in different and unique ways. Catholic bishops in England now have the unenviable task of determining what rights human-animal hybrids should have. The British government has proposed legislation the parliament will debate later this year that will allow scientists to create human-animal hybrids. The bill mandates that the created entity, an unborn child who is 99.9 percent human and less than one percent animal, be destroyed within two weeks and not...

But the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, in a submission to the Parliamentary joint committee scrutinising the draft legislation, said that the genetic mothers of “chimeras” should be able to raise them as their own children if they wished. The bishops said that they did not see why these “interspecies” embryos should be treated any differently than others. The wide-ranging draft Human Tissue and Embryo Bill, which aims to overhaul the laws on fertility treatment, will include

THE way was cleared today for scientists to conduct experiments using hybrid animal-human embryos after the UK Government bowed to a storm of protest from researchers who said a proposed ban could hurt British science. The Department of Health said it would accept a recommendation from the Commons Science and Technology Committee that inter-species embryos could be created for research. Scientists want to use the hybrid embryos to find cures for illnesses such as Parkinson's, stroke and Alzheimer's. In December, the Government had proposed a ban on creating the hybrid embryos, due to what it called "considerable public unease," with...

Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human 25.03.07   Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs.The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.Professor Esmail Zanjani, of the University of Nevada, has spent seven years and £5million perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human cells into a sheep's foetus.  Chimera: sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells  He...

LONDON, February 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The British government’s plans to ban the creation of human/animal hybrid embryos are over after a group of 45 scientists, ethicists and politicians published an open letter in January saying that a ban would hold back the advancement of British science.   The Times reports that the government is now dropping plans to ban the experiments and will instead offer funding for a public debate before new legislation is drafted.   The open letter, published in the Times in response to the government’s December 2006 announcement that it planned to draft legislation to ban...

Close window Published online: 11 January 2007; | doi:10.1038/news070108-11 Proposals for cow-human embryos put on holdChimaera experiments still on the table after authority avoids outright ban.Jim Giles Mixed up: UK proposals to make embryos using two different species are on hold. Getty British plans to create cloned human embryos that contain small amounts of cow DNA have been set back by about a year, after regulators decided to gauge public opinion before granting any licences. Scientists want to use cow eggs to create and study cloned embryos because human eggs are in desperately short supply. Injecting human DNA into...

In an experiment that boosts hopes for regenerative medicine, scientists have used stem cells from human embryos to save the sight of lab rats going blind. The genetically engineered rodents suffered from an eye disease similar to macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in people older than 55. But after receiving injections of retinal tissue generated from human embryonic stem cells, the rodents' vision did not deteriorate and, researchers say, proved to be 100 per cent better than untreated rats. The work not only represents a new possibility for treating an incurable condition on the rise, but also...

Adult human brain cells can generate new tissue when implanted into in the brains of mice, new research reveals. The findings could pave the way to new therapies for a host of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, the researchers say. Furthermore, lab tests show that the mature brain cells have the versatility to divide many times in culture and develop into a wide range of specialised cell types. Researchers at the University of Florida, US, showed for the first time that common human brain cells are adaptable and self-renewing – qualities normally associated with stem cells. Dennis Steindler and his colleagues...

WASHINGTON, July 28, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an op ed piece in the LA Times, David P. Barash, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington, says that reproductive facilities should work towards creating a race of human/chimpanzee hybrids, but, he admits, only because it would offend Christians.   Some geneticists have postulated that their distant evolutionary ancestors may have interbred with those of chimps, and Barash argues that this means there is no moral difference between a human being and a chimpanzee, or indeed, between a human being and a sea sponge.   The psychology professor looks forward to...

British scientists are seeking permission to create hybrid embryos in the lab by fusing human cells with rabbit eggs. If granted consent, the team will use the embryos to produce stem cells that carry genetic defects, in the hope that studying them will help understand the complex mechanisms behind incurable human diseases. The proposal drew strong criticism from opponents to embryo research who yesterday challenged the ethics of the research and branded the work repugnant. Plans for the experiments have been put forward by Professor Chris Shaw, a neurologist and expert in motor neurone disease at King's College London, and...

Mixed chicks sing song of a different species Bird brains hardwired to learn own songs By ANNE MCILROY McGill University researcher Evan Balaban performs brain transplants on chickens to make them sing like quails. He takes bits of brain from quail embryos and attaches them to the brains of embryonic chickens still snug in their eggs. When they hatch, the chickens look normal, except for the dark, quail-coloured feathers sprouting out of their heads. But they do not sound normal. Instead of crowing the classic cock-a-doodle-doo, they sing the two introductory notes and the long trill of a quail song....

China: one-headed, but two-bodied pig bornAn one-headed, but two-bodied pig was born at a Chinese farm. One of its body is male, while the other is female. The news stunned its neighbors. According to July 6th report of Dong-ya-jing-mao-xin-wen, a Chinese newspaper, it was born at a farm in Yushu City. The piglet was shunned by its siblings, and won't suckle. The owner of the pig plans to send it to a research institute. Park Jung-ok in Beijing  07/08/05