Scientists are creating such embryos for medical research; the British government is proposing to authorize their creation but to forbid them from being transferred to a human womb or kept alive beyond 14 days. Bishops’ testimony: 1) “Interspecies embryos” should be treated like human embryos. 2) “At very least, embryos with a preponderance of human genes should be assumed to be embryonic human beings.” 3) “It should not be a crime to transfer them … to the body of the woman providing the ovum, in cases where a human ovum has been used to create them. Such a woman is the genetic mother, or partial mother, of the embryo; should she have a change of heart and wish to carry her child to term, she should not be prevented from doing so.” Scientists’ response: No human ovum is involved when we put a human cell nucleus in an animal egg. Rebuttal: That’s not the only kind of interspecies embryo the legislation authorizes.
From Slate magazine
