Just Because You Can Do Something...

...Doesn't necessarily mean you should.

The UK has just given the green light to make Human - Cow Chimeras.

Stop and think about that for a moment, I mean actually read it again and think of the consequences of it. If you can't think of any I suggest you pick up a copy of Brave New World(you should probably read it even if you can think of what some the consequences of creating Human - Cow Chimeras might be)

According to an article from This Is London the reason for doing this is two fold:

I. A shortage of human eggs led scientists to seek permission to make hybrid embryos from human skin cells and animal eggs such as those from cows, which are plentiful in slaughterhouses.
II. Stem cell expert Dr Stephen Minger, who wants to use the embryos to study conditions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease, said the work could "revolutionise drug discovery". [emphasis added]

That's Wonderful. Lets start down the road of Human - Animal hybrids because I. its economical and II. we (i.e. the rest of us humans) might get some benefit from it at some point. Mind you, so far embryonic research has produced exactly zero benefits to date while Adult Stem Cell research (that's the kind which doesn't kill people) has already shown progress in curing such things as Crohn’s disease.

However even if the arguments were 1000 times stronger there wouldn't be cause to start down this slope. Hasn't anyone in the UK the sense to check the temperature of the water in the proverbial pot they're sitting in? I'm sure it rose by several degrees at this ghastly decision.

See the diagram below for a more detailed illustration of how the gruesome procedure is performed.