Looks like another Weird News Weekend. First we’ve got people playing Find-the-Nuke. Then we’ve got authors whose inspiration for murder mysteries turned up a little too close to home.
Now we’ve got scientists given permission to create hybrid embryos in order to harvest stem cells.
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/09/human-animal-em.html
The basic idea is to merge human cells with animal eggs, creating embryos from which stem cells could be extracted. The embryos themselves would be destroyed in 14 days, researchers say.
They hope to use the research to better their understanding and handling of pure human stem cells.
My question:
Why? Why do they consider this kind of experimentation essential? I know it’s for the sake of stem cells, and all the debate raging over those…but to me, this almost seems like someone tossing a few things together in a chemical beaker and shaking it up to see what happens. Sure, science is all about gaining more understanding and control of the natural processes around us, but is there a limit to how far we can take ourselves when we say, “If we can do it, then we should”?
And I really wonder what the reaction will be if such a ruling comes to the U.S., which I don’t doubt it will. I’m not anticipating a warm welcome.
I see that smile.