Plan to create human-cow embryos

[BioCatholic]

BioCatholic has suggested:[sign]so anything with 44 or less chromosomes of human origin is not human, and can be experimented on ethically as by **IACUC **and Church teaching on humane treatment of animals (non-humans).
[/sign]

Thank you BioCatholic for s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g my imagination.

Am I to understand the creation of “transgenic” humans will now put them under the protection of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)? You expect the Vatican will have no problem with this as long as they are humanely treated? :dancing:

would you consider an empty sperm and empty egg joined together a human? how about a sperm with 1 chromosome and and egg with 3 chromosomes? it that a human?

how many chromosomes donated from each gamete does it take to make a human?

 

[Rosalinda]

BioCatholic, This thread started with the placing of human DNA into an enucleated bovine egg. Would you suggest this is your “empty egg”? The intra-nuclear genetic material has been removed yes; however the extra-nuclear genetic material ie.: mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is still present. Therefore this is not an “empty egg.” Nor can one imagine what possible use an “empty” egg could be since the cytoplasm which occupies around half of the cell’s volume maintains the shape and consistency of the egg’s wall. Without it your “empty egg” would collapse. Hundreds or thousands of mtDNA float within; as many as 25% of the cells of the cytoplasm are mtDNA. Furthermore, the fact that mitochondria are inherited down the female line is not without significance as the altererd genome of this new organism would be inherited to future generations.

In conclusion, all genetic manipulation of human embryos with non-human DNA should be banned. This is too intimate a union.

Biocatholic asked:
[sign]if i take 43 chromosomes of human origin, and add 3 chromosomes of rabbit origin, i sure as heck did not create a human being. so where does the line begin?[/sign]

That’s where I would draw a line.
-No genetic engineering.
-No human transgenic research.
-No germ line cell manipulation.
-No transhumanism.
-No post-human race.

As BioCatholic has already posted earlier there are already enough chromosomal abnormalities which happen spontaneously in humans without deliberately manufacturing more.

 

[Ma.Eugenia]

UK scientists have applied for permission to create embryos by fusing human DNA with cow eggs.

Researchers from Newcastle University and Kings College, London, have asked the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for a three-year licence.

Fusing human DNA with cow eggs? Eywwww…gross!

How far do these scientists intend to go? If allowed to tinker with 25% human DNA…then 30%…then 50%…then 80%…88%…99.9% …what kind of human beings will we end up with? Part cow-Part human animal? part rat-part human animal? …all in the name of science?

I can’t believe they’ve actually already fused human DNA with a rat!

These scientists are playing with the very fabric of what makes us human. They are playing god.

Applying for a legal licence to perform the experiments does not take away the inherent **]immorality **of what they are doing.

 

[Rosalinda]

THE MORAL LIMITS OF MEDICAL RESEARCH AND TREATMENT

People will perhaps object that the ideas set forth here present a serious obstacle to scientific research and work. Nevertheless, the limits We have outlined are not by definition an obstacle to progress. The field of medicine cannot be different in this respect from other fields of man’s research, investigations and work. The** great moral demands force the impetuous flow of human thought and will to flow, like water from the mountains, into certain channels. They contain the flow to increase its efficiency and usefulness. They dam it so that it does not overflow and cause ravages that can never be compensated for by the special good it seeks.** In appearance, moral demands are a brake. In fact, they contribute to the best and most beautiful of what man has produced for science, the individual and the community.

With these words Pope Pius XII reflected on the experiments carried out on a class of human beings deemed unworthy of life during the Nazi era. While the tools today are more refined and sophisticated the moral trespass against natural law is nonetheless just as real.

ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P12PSYCH.HTM