Surprise, surprise! The HFEA has decided to give British scientists the green light on the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for the purposes of experimentation.Obviously they only did this after much deliberation, and a lengthy consultation with the public. Yeah, right... and I'm the next Pope.
If you don't already know how much emphasis is given by the HFEA to public consultation, might I suggest reading my previous posts: Consultation?? Oh Really?? and Should We Bother To Listen To The Public? (an actual question asked at the consultation meeting!!) According to the Daily Telegraph, the only reason that the HFEA carried out their consultation was because scientists didn't like the results of the first consultation which resulted in a government white paper banning the research (Too many pro-life groups attended, and "skewed" the results. What a surprise: pro-life groups attended meetings in order to defend human life. How very unreasonable of them! Just not cricket, old boy!).
But never mind... the hybrids will be about 99% human (that 1% means that they're not really human, so it doesn't matter if we experiment on them... but there's not enough animal to make them really yucky hybrids and get the animal rights lobby up in arms...), and at least Britain is kept at the forefront of research on cloning. Given the state of government funding for scientific research, presumably the only way we will be at the forefront of anything is by tackling stuff that most countries consider too immoral or too dangerous to touch with a ten-foot barge pole.
Oh, and I would just like to point out that the scientific research carried out in the Nazi concentration camps was considered to be of vital importance by the scientists too...
Heard this briefly on the news today (My son listens to Classic FM a lot and they do a news flash).
ReplyDeleteAs usual we are fed the line that this will bring about cures. (Yeah right)and they find some pathetic sounding crip to say how she needs it for her and her children.
AAAAARRGH! I find it sooo undignified when disabled people are manipulated and used in this way for the sake of big business(and this is business and not really science).
Can I just shout from my wheelchair "I DON'T NEED DEAD BABIES TO MAKE ME BETTER!"
Honestly I would rather live like this than know some child has been made, mutilated and killed for some medicine for me.
Worse still though, people like me will NOT be cured through this messing about science.
Adult and umbilical stem cells may help us-if the funding can be found,
but this never will.
In fact I think the money used on this stuff will mean less money for the real science so people like me will have to wait even longer.
God bless
So freaky. It's all about the money...
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of 'yucky,' according to the Today Prog this morning, opposition to the creation of hybrids centres around the 'yuck factor.' You'd think no pro-life info existed. Where do they hide when they are writing their reports?
ReplyDeleteOh yes, and I read yesterday that £1billion is spent each year on fertility treatment in the UK. This sum included complementary therapy as well as IVF etc, so not all contrary to the teaching of the Church, but does make you realise that just maybe some people are swayed by bit wodges of cash as 'a thorn in the pew' says.
Was this decision ever in any doubt? No sirree.
ReplyDeleteAnd going by past performance its likely that the actual benefits accruing from this "research" will be nil.
Remember the hysterical claims made for embryo research in 1990 and embryonic stem cell research ten years later? The blind would be able to see, the deaf to hear and the lame to dash joyously to the London Marathon finishing line.
None of it materialised. Was it ever likely to? I think we should demand our money back.
Oh and I think Pro-Life groups should complain to Mark Thompson about the egregiously biased coverage on the Today Programme. But they won't bother.
I feel a what's-wrong-with-the-British-Pro-Life-Movement post coming on.
And so the thin end of the wedge is being driven ever deeper. When we reap the whirlwind in years to come that was fanned by irresponsible 'junk celebrity scientists' like the HFEA and their joke consultation papers that wanted hybrids with just a little bit more percent mix of animal than human, or two headed rather than three legged and hell, lets have a hybrid monster with umbilical cords hanging out from every square inch of its body - oh yeh, and its only 50% human and we can sell 'em to the USA and etc... yada... yada... yada!
ReplyDeleteWill the NHS and HFEA fund homes for looking after ageing freak hybrids that got out of the petri dish! Remember folks it wasn't that long ago that travelling faster than 20mph or to the moon or to the depths of the sea was considered science fiction!
And meanwhile they pull the wool over our eyes with this goofy global warming hoax and keep us busy recycling aluminium cheese wrappers. Geeez, what's wrong with people - too much TV!