Scottish Council on Human Bioethics

15 Morningside Road, Edinburgh EH10 4DP, Tel: 0131 447 6394

5 October 2006

Press release:

Human-rabbit embryos should not be created says Scottish Council on Human Bioethics

The Scottish Council on Human Bioethics (SCHB) indicated that it was extremely concerned of reports made public today [1] that Prof. Ian Wilmut and two other UK teams have decided to apply for licences to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in order to create animal-human hybrid embryos.

The licences will allow scientists to remove the nuclei from animal eggs and replace them with human cells, leading to embryos containing the complete set of human genes.

In August 2003, Hui Zhen Sheng in China, announced that rabbit-human hybrid embryos had been created by fusing adult human cells with rabbit eggs stripped of their chromosomes which developed to the approximately 100 cell stage that forms after about four days of development [2].

In this respect, Dr. Calum MacKellar indicated that "No public debate concerning the creation of animal-human hybrid embryos has yet taken place and these kinds of experiments should not be considered until this has happened."
He also indicated that "whilst it is encouraging to see that researchers are finally taking the risks to women of egg donation seriously enough to consider pursuing alternatives, it would currently be irresponsible to suggest that experiments with such hybrid embryos will necessarily allow one to discover anything significant about unknown causes of late-onset human diseases."

Dr. MacKellar also questioned whether the HFEA was even qualified to give a license for this kind of research since the UK Chief Medical Officer indicated in a report entitled Stem cell research: Medical progress with responsibility (2000), that: "The 1990 Act does not control the mixing of animal eggs with other human cells." Adding that "bodies funding research may wish to make a declaration that they would not fund or support research involving the creation of such hybrids." [3]

The SCHB (www.schb.org.uk) has published a report in summer 2006 recommending that: The insertion of a human cell nucleus or chromosomes into a non-human egg stripped of its chromosomes enabling an embryo to exist should be prohibited.