Human-animal hybrid embryos conceived in the laboratory - so-called “chimeras” - should be regarded as human and their mothers should be allowed to give birth to them, the Roman Catholic Church said yesterday.

Under draft Government legislation to be debated by Parliament later this year, scientists will be given permission for the first time to create such embryos for research as long as they destroy them within two weeks.

But the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, in a submission to the Parliamentary joint committee scrutinising the draft legislation, said that the genetic mothers of “chimeras” should be able to raise them as their own children if they wished.

The bishops said that they did not see why these “interspecies” embryos should be treated any differently than others.

The wide-ranging draft Human Tissue and Embryo Bill, which aims to overhaul the laws on fertility treatment, will include sections on test tube babies, embryo research and abortion. Ministers say that the creation of animal-human embryos - created by injecting animal cells or DNA into human embryos or human cells into animal eggs - will be heavily regulated.

They insist that it will be against the law to implant “chimeras” - named after the mythical creature that was half man and half animal - into a woman’s womb.

The bishops, who believe that life begins at conception, said that they opposed the creation of any embryo solely for research, but they were also anxious to limit the destruction of such life once it had been brought into existence.

In their submission to the committee, they said: “At the very least, embryos with a preponderance of human genes should be assumed to be embryonic human beings, and should be treated accordingly.

“In particular, it should not be a crime to transfer them, or other human embryos, to the body of the woman providing the ovum, in cases where a human ovum has been used to create them.

“Such a woman is the genetic mother, or partial mother, of the embryo; should she have a change of heart and wish to carry her child to term, she should not be prevented from doing so.”

The draft Bill will also allow the screening of embryos for genetic or chromosomal abnormalities that might lead to serious medical conditions, disabilities, or miscarriage. It will permit doctors to check whether an embryo could provide a suitable tissue match for a sibling suffering from a life-threatening illness.

The Bill would abolish the requirement for fertility clinics to consider the need for a father when deciding on treatment. This means clinics will no longer be able to deny treatment to lesbians and single mothers.

The Catholic bishops said that most of the procedures covered by the Bill “should not be licensed under any circumstances”, principally on the grounds that they violate human rights.

SOURCE: Chimera embryos have right to life, say bishops - Telegraph

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Comment from webmaster of Jesus-is-Savior.com...

This is bizarre!  In a modern society where tens-of-millions of irresponsible parents are destroying perfectly healthy human children by abortion, others in society are defending the 'right to  life' of Chimeras, i.e., half animal/half human creatures which are being developed in laboratories.  Where will the insanity stop?

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The Trojan Horse of Genetically Modified Food  |  Human Mice!

Playing God with Chimeras  |  Coming Gene Wars  |  Got Spider Goat Milk?

Spider Goats  |  The Thing!  |  Mad Scientists!  |  Transgenics and Transvestites

Making Genetic Monsters  |  Transgenic Cats  |  Transgenic Pigs  |  BIOCOLONIZATION

Outrage at "Frankenstein" Animal Experiments

Transgenic Pigs End Up as Chicken Feed  |  Genetic Engineering: Playing God?

The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity (stem cell research, cloning, etc.)

Genetically Engineered Crops May Produce Herbicide Inside Our Intestines

Transgenic Chickens  |  Transgenic Sheep  |  Molecular Trojan Horses

Kluwer Transgenic Research  |  The Stanford Transgenic Research Facility

'Trojan Gene' Could Wipe Out Fish!  |  Transgenic Research Reagents

Disturbing Possibilities - A Human Cow!  |  The Biotech Harvest  |  The Coming Food Shortage!

Controlling the World's Food - Seeds of Deception!

Chimeras, Cloning and Freak Human-Animal Hybrids (mutants)

A Spinach Pig  |  Vegetable (edible) Vaccinations  |  Designer Babies

End of the World?

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This will be every transgenic cat's dream, glow in the dark mice.  Don't think for one moment that fluorescent humans aren't around the corner, mark my words...you'll see it, along with spider humans and every other godless monstrosity of mad scientists.  Man's good intentions are often a Pandora's box.  Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Every single transgenic animal of any species born so far has had genetic defects that scientists admit they cannot predict and that seem to Tear-free transgenic cats could be 3 years away adhere to no pattern. Transgenic animals are being born with lungs that don't inflate, for example. Others can't stand up. Most—98 percent—abort their fetuses. Researchers are driven by money, not ethics. They have no idea what will happen to cats if they remove the genes that cause sneezing in people. Those genes are there for a reason, and tinkering causes physiological and immune system problems that researchers admit they can neither anticipate nor control.

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"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so." -Genesis 1:24