The ultimate abomination!

This is surely the ultimate abomination, from the UK's Sunday Times.

Mixing that which is made in the image of God with unclean swine. This confirms that it is about the time for God to pull down the curtain and say, "That's enough. You've gone too far."  See last paragraph.

Cloning teams cross pig and human DNA

SCIENTISTS have successfully produced an embryonic pig-human hybrid. Human DNA was inserted into pig cells which became tiny embryos, write Jonathan Leake and Nick Fielding.

The researchers have not revealed what happened to them, but suggest they could have been grown further by being implanted into a womb - and that either a pig or a human mother would have been suitable.

The intentions of the researchers are not made clear in an application they have submitted to the European Patent Office. However, such embryos would be ideal for research into therapeutic cloning, when cells are cloned, grown into tissues such as nerve cells and then used to treat a patient.

The researchers, from Stem Cell Sciences in Australia and Biotransplant in America, both big players in the biotechnology industry, 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.

Experts in medical ethics are deeply concerned about the patent application, which has a strong chance of being granted. They say the research exploits loopholes in European law. It is not illegal because the embryo is not technically human.

Dr Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics, said: "This kind of research depends on devaluing human beings."

Nobody knows whether the hybrid embryos could have become living beings. They would be much more human than pig because about 97% of DNA is in the nucleus, which was human. There would, however, be some effect from the 3% of DNA from the pig.


Article here.