A Scary Scientific Frontier, But Necessary?

It's all about cloning. It's all about genetic engineering. Yawn - been there, done that. It's about developing a mixed animal/human embryo. WHAT?

British scientists want to create hybrid human embryos using the unfertilized eggs of cows or rabbits. These eggs would be fused with human genetic material to create the hybrid embryo. I realize it sounds downright ghastly but consider this. The human DNA would be taken from a skin cell of a patient suffering with a particular disease such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. After the embryo is six days old and not more than 14 days old, scientists would extract the stem cells for research.

The British scientists are expected to run into a brick wall when the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority rules on the proposal next week.

The Labour government has already opposed hybrid embryo development citing, "considerable public unease with the possible creation of embryos combining human and animal material".

The scientists pursuing the idea point out that the cells would not be used for treatment but merely to create "disease-in-a-dish" models for research.