Chimeras are a shocking affront to human dignity

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has sent most of the world into total moral shock with its decision that in principle they could and would authorise the creation of animalhuman hybrid embryos.
Such an embryo would be created using the egg of an animal — rabbit or cow is being suggested — from which the nucleus is removed. The egg would then be "fertilised" by the cloning process, using adult human cells to initiate the new life. Descriptions of the ease with which cows' ovaries can be obtained from abattoirs are one of the countless gruesome aspects of this proposed research.
Vatican spokesman Bishop Elio Sgreccia was one of the many senior Churchmen to immediately condemn the decision and to point out that opposition to the creation of animal-human hybrids is not the exclusive domain of religious groups.
"This is because human dignity is compromised and offended and monstrosities will be created," he said. In Britain, Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff has also reiterated the position of the Church that breaking the species boundary in this way must not be tolerated. "Human beings have a unique nature specifically distinct from the natures of all other animals," he pointed out. Sadly not all religious voices in this country are to be commended, in particular the perplexing "cautious acceptance" of this research by the Church of England.
David King of Human Genetics Alert is one of the secular nonreligious voices who has spoken eloquently against the HFEA's appalling decision. He said: "The basis of revulsion is the inadmissible mixing of things that are different and should be kept apart."
The HFEA is adamant that the resulting embryo would be a human one. It's smug certainty is deplorable and epitomises the poor level of scientific analysis" which has characterised most of this debate in the United Kingdom. It should be noted that this research — were it ever to work — would produce an embryo that is predominantly animal for the first days of its unfortunate life. Certainly until the stage at which it is planned to extract stem cells, the majority of the molecular components of the embryo would have been derived from the animal egg. Sceptical scientists, of whom fortunately there are some in Britain and many in other countries, believe that any resulting stem cells would be too abnormal to be of any use.
In our country experimentation on the human embryo was formally legalised in 1990, when the UK justified not merely the use of embryos surplus to IVF treatment, but also the deliberate creation of human embryos exclusively for research, it will be difficult to combat this new development. But fight we must. The creation of animal-human chimeras is a further offence against human dignity which like all others must not be countenanced.