The human pig cometh

Last November we posted a report, "From the bioethical front ..." (Musings, November 8, 2008), detailing not only a eugenic proposal to kill disabled human babies, but a plan to create human-cow embryos, a scenario more recently comented on by an article in the Weekly Standard, "The Pig-Man Cometh."

Now the British House of Commons has actually done the nasty deed: "Commons approves embryology Bill" (The Press Association, October 22, 2008):

Controversial new legislation allowing scientists to conduct experiments using hybrid human-animal embryos has been approved by the House of Commons despite a small rebellion by Labour backbenchers.

The staunchly Catholic former minister Ruth Kelly [See "A woman with balls ..."], who quit the Government earlier this month, was one of 16 Labour MPs who voted against the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

... Conservative MP Nadine Dorries warned that loopholes in the legislation would allow scientists to attempt to create a "humanzee" - a hybrid between a human and a chimpanzee.

Recalling Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's 1920s efforts to create "the ultimate soldier" by cross-breeding men and apes, she warned: "Of all the experimental possibilities debated in the course of this Bill, surely none is quite so utterly repulsive as the possibility of seeking to inseminate animals with human sperm."

Goeteia -- the dark art of deconstructing nature

Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human (Daily Mail, March 27, 2007)

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.

All of this courtesy of Professor Esmail Zanjani, of the University of Nevada, who has spent seven years and £5million perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human cells into a sheep's foetus. Among other things, however, there is this:

Dr. Patrick Dixon, an international lecturer on biological trends, warned: "Many silent viruses could create a biological nightmare in humans. Mutant animal viruses are a real threat, as we have seen with HIV."

[Hat tip to M.F.]