MELBOURNE - Scientists who produced an embryonic pig-human hybrid have been forced to withdraw a patent bid after an outcry.
The scientists, from Australia and the US, inserted human DNA into pig cells, which became embryos.
While these were later discarded, Melbourne scientist Dr Peter Mountford said that, theoretically, if they had been allowed to develop, the embryos could have been grown further by being implanted into a pig or human womb.
The researchers, from Stem Cell Sciences and Biotransplant, took a cell from a human foetus, extracted the nucleus and then inserted it into a pig's egg cell.
Two embryos were grown to the 32-cell stage, which took a week.
A report in Britain's Sunday Times said they would be much more human than pig because about 97 per cent of DNA is in the nucleus, which was human. There would, however, be some effect from the pig DNA.
Experts in medical ethics were deeply concerned about the application to the European Patent Office, which they said exploited loopholes in European law.
"This kind of research depends on devaluing human beings," said Dr Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics.
It was not illegal because the embryo is not technically human.
Dr Mountford said the company would modify the application to exclude the possibility of human reproductive cloning. But such embryos would be ideal for research into therapeutic cloning, where cells are grown into tissues to treat a patient.
- AGENCIES
Pig-human hybrid uproar kills patent
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