British Scientists: Cloning Animal / Human Embryos In Secret

Remember just a few short days ago when we reported that a bunch of London scientists had put a warning out to the scientific community about the dangers of mixing human / animal DNA in the name of research? Well, it seems like they had just cause to be concerned – it turns out that a bunch of British scientists were doing just that, in secret!

According to the Daily Mail (which isn't always known for ironclad reporting, but...) King’s College London, Newcastle University and Warwick University all received licenses to carry out embryo blending research under the 2008 Human Fertilisation Embryology Act. Even though they have all discontinued the research due to lack of funding, a recent Parliamentary meeting on the issue had many people up in arms.

"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," Lord Alton, a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, told the Daily Mail. "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."

On the other side of the argument, however, is the lead author of the initial report that warned against creating "monsters." Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, from the Medical Research Council’s National Institute for Medical Research, claims that all animal / human hybrid embryos are supposed to be destroyed after 14 days – and claims that all he wants are stricter controls. Even though a Planet of the Apes scenario could happen, he seems to say, it probably won't, so some of the outrage against this type of research is probably unwarranted.

Do I think our research is advanced enough that people are secretly creating some type of Mansquito in a shady lab somewhere? Not yet (then again, what do I know?). But stricter, more ethical controls on these types of experiments seem like the right way to go. After all, science doesn't slow down, and as we've seen from history, humans kind of enjoy playing God.