{"id":15866,"date":"2016-09-06T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T22:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic-30709\/"},"modified":"2016-11-26T23:40:00","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T23:40:00","slug":"what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic\/","title":{"rendered":"What are human-animal chimeras, and why are they problematic?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/A_scientist_holds_a_petri_dish_File_Photo_Credit_Umberto_Salvagnin_via_Flickr_CC_BY_20_CNA_2_3_15.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Washington D.C., Nov 26, 2016 \/ 04:40 pm (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- After the National Institutes of Health proposed federal funding of projects to possibly create a human-animal hybrid, Catholic ethicists voiced serious moral and legal concerns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor if one cannot tell to what extent, if any, the resulting organism may have human status or characteristics, it will be impossible to determine what one's moral obligations may be regarding that organism,\u201d Anthony Picarello and Michael Moses, general counsels for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in September comments to the National Institutes of Health Office of Science Policy.<\/p>\n<p>A month prior, the NIH proposed federally-funded projects to research human\/animal chimeras. The projects would involve injecting embryonic stem cells into animal embryos, with \u201ctremendous potential for disease modeling, drug testing, and perhaps eventual organ transplant,\u201d the NIH proposal stated.<\/p>\n<p>However, it recognized \u201cethical and animal welfare concerns\u201d and put a temporary funding ban on such research. The NIH said it would accept public comments on the proposal through September 6.<\/p>\n<p>Federal funding for new research projects involving embryonic stem cells was stopped under the Bush administration, but re-opened under the Obama administration. President Bush had expressed moral concerns about the destruction of human embryos in the research.<\/p>\n<p>In comments submitted to NIH, the National Catholic Bioethics Center stated that using stem cells of human embryos for research is wrong because \u201chuman beings at these vulnerable stages must be safeguarded, not exploited, in both clinical and research settings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Pontifical Academy for Life stated in 2000 that \u201con the basis of a complete biological analysis, the living human embryo is \u2013 from the moment of the union of the gametes \u2013 a human subject with a well-defined identity,\u201d and that as \u201ca human individual it has the right to its own life; and therefore every intervention which is not in favor of the embryo is an act which violates that right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTherefore,\u201d the statement added, \u201cthe ablation of the inner cell mass (ICM) of the blastocyst, which critically and irremediably damages the human embryo, curtailing its development, is a gravely immoral act and consequently is gravely illicit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, research to create chimeras causes more ethical problems, the USCCB stated, because these will be creatures \u201cwhose very existence blurs the line between humanity and animals such as mice and rats.\u201d Thus, the moral obligations towards such a creature \u2013 like whether or not it is morally licit to destroy it \u2013 could be unclear.<\/p>\n<p>Human-animal chimera research can only be acceptable by using \u201cinduced pluripotent stem cells\u201d under certain conditions, the National Catholic Bioethics Center explained.<\/p>\n<p>It must not involve \u201cthe replication of major pillars of human identity in the \u201cbrain systems\u201d of animals, they stated. Also, it cannot result in the growth of human reproductive cells in animals, and if that occurs, the creature \u2013 if it is an animal \u2013 \u201cshould never be permitted to breed,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cResearch must not involve the production or reproductive use of human gametes or their progenitor lineages \u2013 the basic building blocks of human reproduction \u2013 within animals,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnimals in which such lineages might unintentionally arise should never be permitted to breed, and derivation of any gametic cells or their progenitors from such animals or their corpses for reproductive purposes should be specifically prohibited.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are also legal concerns about federally-funded chimera research projects, the USCCB comments stated \u2013 namely that it violates existing law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Dickey amendment forbids the use of federal funds to create a human embryo for research purposes, or to support any part of a research project in which a human embryo is destroyed, discarded, or subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that permitted for research involving live children in their mother\u2019s wombs,\u201d the comments stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cForbidding the production of mixed human\/animal embryos was exactly what Congress intended by this language. NIH\u2019s proposal is contrary to this provision,\u201d the comments added.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was originally published Sept. 6, 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?a=KZZlCcsK8Rk:o8QDpaSp_xg:yIl2AUoC8zA\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/KZZlCcsK8Rk\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/A_scientist_holds_a_petri_dish_File_Photo_Credit_Umberto_Salvagnin_via_Flickr_CC_BY_20_CNA_2_3_15.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Washington D.C., Nov 26, 2016 \/ 04:40 pm (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\" target=\"_self\">CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- After the National Institutes of Health proposed federal funding of projects to possibly create a human-animal hybrid, Catholic ethicists voiced serious moral and legal concerns.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;For if one cannot tell to what extent, if any, the resulting organism may have human status or characteristics, it will be impossible to determine what one&#8217;s moral obligations may be regarding that organism,&rdquo; Anthony Picarello and Michael Moses, general counsels for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in September comments to the National Institutes of Health Office of Science Policy.<\/p>\n<p>A month prior, the NIH proposed federally-funded projects to research human\/animal chimeras. The projects would involve injecting embryonic stem cells into animal embryos, with &ldquo;tremendous potential for disease modeling, drug testing, and perhaps eventual organ transplant,&rdquo; the NIH proposal stated.<\/p>\n<p>However, it recognized &ldquo;ethical and animal welfare concerns&rdquo; and put a temporary funding ban on such research. The NIH said it would accept public comments on the proposal through September 6.<\/p>\n<p>Federal funding for new research projects involving embryonic stem cells was stopped under the Bush administration, but re-opened under the Obama administration. President Bush had expressed moral concerns about the destruction of human embryos in the research.<\/p>\n<p>In comments submitted to NIH, the National Catholic Bioethics Center stated that using stem cells of human embryos for research is wrong because &ldquo;human beings at these vulnerable stages must be safeguarded, not exploited, in both clinical and research settings.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Pontifical Academy for Life stated in 2000 that &ldquo;on the basis of a complete biological analysis, the living human embryo is &#8211; from the moment of the union of the gametes &#8211; a human subject with a well-defined identity,&rdquo; and that as &ldquo;a human individual it has the right to its own life; and therefore every intervention which is not in favor of the embryo is an act which violates that right.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Therefore,&rdquo; the statement added, &ldquo;the ablation of the inner cell mass (ICM) of the blastocyst, which critically and irremediably damages the human embryo, curtailing its development, is a gravely immoral act and consequently is gravely illicit.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>However, research to create chimeras causes more ethical problems, the USCCB stated, because these will be creatures &ldquo;whose very existence blurs the line between humanity and animals such as mice and rats.&rdquo; Thus, the moral obligations towards such a creature &ndash; like whether or not it is morally licit to destroy it &ndash; could be unclear.<\/p>\n<p>Human-animal chimera research can only be acceptable by using &ldquo;induced pluripotent stem cells&rdquo; under certain conditions, the National Catholic Bioethics Center explained.<\/p>\n<p>It must not involve &ldquo;the replication of major pillars of human identity in the &ldquo;brain systems&rdquo; of animals, they stated. Also, it cannot result in the growth of human reproductive cells in animals, and if that occurs, the creature &ndash; if it is an animal &ndash; &ldquo;should never be permitted to breed,&rdquo; they added.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Research must not involve the production or reproductive use of human gametes or their progenitor lineages &ndash; the basic building blocks of human reproduction &ndash; within animals,&rdquo; the statement continued.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Animals in which such lineages might unintentionally arise should never be permitted to breed, and derivation of any gametic cells or their progenitors from such animals or their corpses for reproductive purposes should be specifically prohibited.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>There are also legal concerns about federally-funded chimera research projects, the USCCB comments stated &ndash; namely that it violates existing law.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The Dickey amendment forbids the use of federal funds to create a human embryo for research purposes, or to support any part of a research project in which a human embryo is destroyed, discarded, or subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that permitted for research involving live children in their mother&rsquo;s wombs,&rdquo; the comments stated.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Forbidding the production of mixed human\/animal embryos was exactly what Congress intended by this language. NIH&rsquo;s proposal is contrary to this provision,&rdquo; the comments added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was originally published Sept. 6, 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n<div>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?a=KZZlCcsK8Rk:o8QDpaSp_xg:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/KZZlCcsK8Rk\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What are human-animal chimeras, and why are they problematic?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Nov 26, 2016 \/ 04:40 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- After the National Institutes of Health proposed federal funding of projects to possibly create a human-animal hybrid, Catholic ethicists voiced serious moral and legal concerns. &ldquo;For if one cannot tell to what extent, if any, the resulting organism may have human status or characteristics, it will be impossible to determine what one&#039;s moral obligations may be regarding that organism,&rdquo; Anthony Picarello and Michael Moses, general counsels for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in September comments to the National Institutes of Health Office of Science Policy. A month prior, the NIH proposed federally-funded projects to research human\/animal chimeras. The projects would involve injecting embryonic stem cells into animal embryos, with &ldquo;tremendous potential for disease modeling, drug testing, and perhaps eventual organ transplant,&rdquo; the NIH proposal stated. However, it recognized &ldquo;ethical and animal welfare concerns&rdquo; and put a temporary funding ban on such research. The NIH said it would accept public comments on the proposal through September 6. Federal funding for new research projects involving embryonic stem cells was stopped under the Bush administration, but re-opened under the Obama administration. President Bush had expressed moral concerns about the destruction of human embryos in the research. In comments submitted to NIH, the National Catholic Bioethics Center stated that using stem cells of human embryos for research is wrong because &ldquo;human beings at these vulnerable stages must be safeguarded, not exploited, in both clinical and research settings.&rdquo; The Pontifical Academy for Life stated in 2000 that &ldquo;on the basis of a complete biological analysis, the living human embryo is - from the moment of the union of the gametes - a human subject with a well-defined identity,&rdquo; and that as &ldquo;a human individual it has the right to its own life; and therefore every intervention which is not in favor of the embryo is an act which violates that right.&rdquo; &ldquo;Therefore,&rdquo; the statement added, &ldquo;the ablation of the inner cell mass (ICM) of the blastocyst, which critically and irremediably damages the human embryo, curtailing its development, is a gravely immoral act and consequently is gravely illicit.&rdquo; However, research to create chimeras causes more ethical problems, the USCCB stated, because these will be creatures &ldquo;whose very existence blurs the line between humanity and animals such as mice and rats.&rdquo; Thus, the moral obligations towards such a creature &ndash; like whether or not it is morally licit to destroy it &ndash; could be unclear. Human-animal chimera research can only be acceptable by using &ldquo;induced pluripotent stem cells&rdquo; under certain conditions, the National Catholic Bioethics Center explained. It must not involve &ldquo;the replication of major pillars of human identity in the &ldquo;brain systems&rdquo; of animals, they stated. Also, it cannot result in the growth of human reproductive cells in animals, and if that occurs, the creature &ndash; if it is an animal &ndash; &ldquo;should never be permitted to breed,&rdquo; they added. &ldquo;Research must not involve the production or reproductive use of human gametes or their progenitor lineages &ndash; the basic building blocks of human reproduction &ndash; within animals,&rdquo; the statement continued. &ldquo;Animals in which such lineages might unintentionally arise should never be permitted to breed, and derivation of any gametic cells or their progenitors from such animals or their corpses for reproductive purposes should be specifically prohibited.&rdquo; There are also legal concerns about federally-funded chimera research projects, the USCCB comments stated &ndash; namely that it violates existing law. &ldquo;The Dickey amendment forbids the use of federal funds to create a human embryo for research purposes, or to support any part of a research project in which a human embryo is destroyed, discarded, or subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that permitted for research involving live children in their mother&rsquo;s wombs,&rdquo; the comments stated. &ldquo;Forbidding the production of mixed human\/animal embryos was exactly what Congress intended by this language. NIH&rsquo;s proposal is contrary to this provision,&rdquo; the comments added. &nbsp;This article was originally published Sept. 6, 2016.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What are human-animal chimeras, and why are they problematic?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Nov 26, 2016 \/ 04:40 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- After the National Institutes of Health proposed federal funding of projects to possibly create a human-animal hybrid, Catholic ethicists voiced serious moral and legal concerns. &ldquo;For if one cannot tell to what extent, if any, the resulting organism may have human status or characteristics, it will be impossible to determine what one&#039;s moral obligations may be regarding that organism,&rdquo; Anthony Picarello and Michael Moses, general counsels for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in September comments to the National Institutes of Health Office of Science Policy. A month prior, the NIH proposed federally-funded projects to research human\/animal chimeras. The projects would involve injecting embryonic stem cells into animal embryos, with &ldquo;tremendous potential for disease modeling, drug testing, and perhaps eventual organ transplant,&rdquo; the NIH proposal stated. However, it recognized &ldquo;ethical and animal welfare concerns&rdquo; and put a temporary funding ban on such research. The NIH said it would accept public comments on the proposal through September 6. Federal funding for new research projects involving embryonic stem cells was stopped under the Bush administration, but re-opened under the Obama administration. President Bush had expressed moral concerns about the destruction of human embryos in the research. In comments submitted to NIH, the National Catholic Bioethics Center stated that using stem cells of human embryos for research is wrong because &ldquo;human beings at these vulnerable stages must be safeguarded, not exploited, in both clinical and research settings.&rdquo; The Pontifical Academy for Life stated in 2000 that &ldquo;on the basis of a complete biological analysis, the living human embryo is - from the moment of the union of the gametes - a human subject with a well-defined identity,&rdquo; and that as &ldquo;a human individual it has the right to its own life; and therefore every intervention which is not in favor of the embryo is an act which violates that right.&rdquo; &ldquo;Therefore,&rdquo; the statement added, &ldquo;the ablation of the inner cell mass (ICM) of the blastocyst, which critically and irremediably damages the human embryo, curtailing its development, is a gravely immoral act and consequently is gravely illicit.&rdquo; However, research to create chimeras causes more ethical problems, the USCCB stated, because these will be creatures &ldquo;whose very existence blurs the line between humanity and animals such as mice and rats.&rdquo; Thus, the moral obligations towards such a creature &ndash; like whether or not it is morally licit to destroy it &ndash; could be unclear. Human-animal chimera research can only be acceptable by using &ldquo;induced pluripotent stem cells&rdquo; under certain conditions, the National Catholic Bioethics Center explained. It must not involve &ldquo;the replication of major pillars of human identity in the &ldquo;brain systems&rdquo; of animals, they stated. Also, it cannot result in the growth of human reproductive cells in animals, and if that occurs, the creature &ndash; if it is an animal &ndash; &ldquo;should never be permitted to breed,&rdquo; they added. &ldquo;Research must not involve the production or reproductive use of human gametes or their progenitor lineages &ndash; the basic building blocks of human reproduction &ndash; within animals,&rdquo; the statement continued. &ldquo;Animals in which such lineages might unintentionally arise should never be permitted to breed, and derivation of any gametic cells or their progenitors from such animals or their corpses for reproductive purposes should be specifically prohibited.&rdquo; There are also legal concerns about federally-funded chimera research projects, the USCCB comments stated &ndash; namely that it violates existing law. &ldquo;The Dickey amendment forbids the use of federal funds to create a human embryo for research purposes, or to support any part of a research project in which a human embryo is destroyed, discarded, or subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that permitted for research involving live children in their mother&rsquo;s wombs,&rdquo; the comments stated. &ldquo;Forbidding the production of mixed human\/animal embryos was exactly what Congress intended by this language. NIH&rsquo;s proposal is contrary to this provision,&rdquo; the comments added. &nbsp;This article was originally published Sept. 6, 2016.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-06T22:40:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-11-26T23:40:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/A_scientist_holds_a_petri_dish_File_Photo_Credit_Umberto_Salvagnin_via_Flickr_CC_BY_20_CNA_2_3_15.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic\/\",\"name\":\"What are human-animal chimeras, and why are they problematic?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-06T22:40:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-11-26T23:40:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Washington D.C., Nov 26, 2016 \/ 04:40 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- After the National Institutes of Health proposed federal funding of projects to possibly create a human-animal hybrid, Catholic ethicists voiced serious moral and legal concerns. &ldquo;For if one cannot tell to what extent, if any, the resulting organism may have human status or characteristics, it will be impossible to determine what one's moral obligations may be regarding that organism,&rdquo; Anthony Picarello and Michael Moses, general counsels for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in September comments to the National Institutes of Health Office of Science Policy. A month prior, the NIH proposed federally-funded projects to research human\/animal chimeras. The projects would involve injecting embryonic stem cells into animal embryos, with &ldquo;tremendous potential for disease modeling, drug testing, and perhaps eventual organ transplant,&rdquo; the NIH proposal stated. However, it recognized &ldquo;ethical and animal welfare concerns&rdquo; and put a temporary funding ban on such research. The NIH said it would accept public comments on the proposal through September 6. Federal funding for new research projects involving embryonic stem cells was stopped under the Bush administration, but re-opened under the Obama administration. President Bush had expressed moral concerns about the destruction of human embryos in the research. In comments submitted to NIH, the National Catholic Bioethics Center stated that using stem cells of human embryos for research is wrong because &ldquo;human beings at these vulnerable stages must be safeguarded, not exploited, in both clinical and research settings.&rdquo; The Pontifical Academy for Life stated in 2000 that &ldquo;on the basis of a complete biological analysis, the living human embryo is - from the moment of the union of the gametes - a human subject with a well-defined identity,&rdquo; and that as &ldquo;a human individual it has the right to its own life; and therefore every intervention which is not in favor of the embryo is an act which violates that right.&rdquo; &ldquo;Therefore,&rdquo; the statement added, &ldquo;the ablation of the inner cell mass (ICM) of the blastocyst, which critically and irremediably damages the human embryo, curtailing its development, is a gravely immoral act and consequently is gravely illicit.&rdquo; However, research to create chimeras causes more ethical problems, the USCCB stated, because these will be creatures &ldquo;whose very existence blurs the line between humanity and animals such as mice and rats.&rdquo; Thus, the moral obligations towards such a creature &ndash; like whether or not it is morally licit to destroy it &ndash; could be unclear. Human-animal chimera research can only be acceptable by using &ldquo;induced pluripotent stem cells&rdquo; under certain conditions, the National Catholic Bioethics Center explained. It must not involve &ldquo;the replication of major pillars of human identity in the &ldquo;brain systems&rdquo; of animals, they stated. Also, it cannot result in the growth of human reproductive cells in animals, and if that occurs, the creature &ndash; if it is an animal &ndash; &ldquo;should never be permitted to breed,&rdquo; they added. &ldquo;Research must not involve the production or reproductive use of human gametes or their progenitor lineages &ndash; the basic building blocks of human reproduction &ndash; within animals,&rdquo; the statement continued. &ldquo;Animals in which such lineages might unintentionally arise should never be permitted to breed, and derivation of any gametic cells or their progenitors from such animals or their corpses for reproductive purposes should be specifically prohibited.&rdquo; There are also legal concerns about federally-funded chimera research projects, the USCCB comments stated &ndash; namely that it violates existing law. &ldquo;The Dickey amendment forbids the use of federal funds to create a human embryo for research purposes, or to support any part of a research project in which a human embryo is destroyed, discarded, or subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that permitted for research involving live children in their mother&rsquo;s wombs,&rdquo; the comments stated. &ldquo;Forbidding the production of mixed human\/animal embryos was exactly what Congress intended by this language. 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A month prior, the NIH proposed federally-funded projects to research human\/animal chimeras. The projects would involve injecting embryonic stem cells into animal embryos, with &ldquo;tremendous potential for disease modeling, drug testing, and perhaps eventual organ transplant,&rdquo; the NIH proposal stated. However, it recognized &ldquo;ethical and animal welfare concerns&rdquo; and put a temporary funding ban on such research. The NIH said it would accept public comments on the proposal through September 6. Federal funding for new research projects involving embryonic stem cells was stopped under the Bush administration, but re-opened under the Obama administration. President Bush had expressed moral concerns about the destruction of human embryos in the research. In comments submitted to NIH, the National Catholic Bioethics Center stated that using stem cells of human embryos for research is wrong because &ldquo;human beings at these vulnerable stages must be safeguarded, not exploited, in both clinical and research settings.&rdquo; The Pontifical Academy for Life stated in 2000 that &ldquo;on the basis of a complete biological analysis, the living human embryo is - from the moment of the union of the gametes - a human subject with a well-defined identity,&rdquo; and that as &ldquo;a human individual it has the right to its own life; and therefore every intervention which is not in favor of the embryo is an act which violates that right.&rdquo; &ldquo;Therefore,&rdquo; the statement added, &ldquo;the ablation of the inner cell mass (ICM) of the blastocyst, which critically and irremediably damages the human embryo, curtailing its development, is a gravely immoral act and consequently is gravely illicit.&rdquo; However, research to create chimeras causes more ethical problems, the USCCB stated, because these will be creatures &ldquo;whose very existence blurs the line between humanity and animals such as mice and rats.&rdquo; Thus, the moral obligations towards such a creature &ndash; like whether or not it is morally licit to destroy it &ndash; could be unclear. Human-animal chimera research can only be acceptable by using &ldquo;induced pluripotent stem cells&rdquo; under certain conditions, the National Catholic Bioethics Center explained. It must not involve &ldquo;the replication of major pillars of human identity in the &ldquo;brain systems&rdquo; of animals, they stated. Also, it cannot result in the growth of human reproductive cells in animals, and if that occurs, the creature &ndash; if it is an animal &ndash; &ldquo;should never be permitted to breed,&rdquo; they added. &ldquo;Research must not involve the production or reproductive use of human gametes or their progenitor lineages &ndash; the basic building blocks of human reproduction &ndash; within animals,&rdquo; the statement continued. &ldquo;Animals in which such lineages might unintentionally arise should never be permitted to breed, and derivation of any gametic cells or their progenitors from such animals or their corpses for reproductive purposes should be specifically prohibited.&rdquo; There are also legal concerns about federally-funded chimera research projects, the USCCB comments stated &ndash; namely that it violates existing law. &ldquo;The Dickey amendment forbids the use of federal funds to create a human embryo for research purposes, or to support any part of a research project in which a human embryo is destroyed, discarded, or subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that permitted for research involving live children in their mother&rsquo;s wombs,&rdquo; the comments stated. &ldquo;Forbidding the production of mixed human\/animal embryos was exactly what Congress intended by this language. NIH&rsquo;s proposal is contrary to this provision,&rdquo; the comments added. &nbsp;This article was originally published Sept. 6, 2016.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What are human-animal chimeras, and why are they problematic?","og_description":"Washington D.C., Nov 26, 2016 \/ 04:40 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- After the National Institutes of Health proposed federal funding of projects to possibly create a human-animal hybrid, Catholic ethicists voiced serious moral and legal concerns. &ldquo;For if one cannot tell to what extent, if any, the resulting organism may have human status or characteristics, it will be impossible to determine what one's moral obligations may be regarding that organism,&rdquo; Anthony Picarello and Michael Moses, general counsels for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in September comments to the National Institutes of Health Office of Science Policy. A month prior, the NIH proposed federally-funded projects to research human\/animal chimeras. The projects would involve injecting embryonic stem cells into animal embryos, with &ldquo;tremendous potential for disease modeling, drug testing, and perhaps eventual organ transplant,&rdquo; the NIH proposal stated. However, it recognized &ldquo;ethical and animal welfare concerns&rdquo; and put a temporary funding ban on such research. The NIH said it would accept public comments on the proposal through September 6. Federal funding for new research projects involving embryonic stem cells was stopped under the Bush administration, but re-opened under the Obama administration. President Bush had expressed moral concerns about the destruction of human embryos in the research. In comments submitted to NIH, the National Catholic Bioethics Center stated that using stem cells of human embryos for research is wrong because &ldquo;human beings at these vulnerable stages must be safeguarded, not exploited, in both clinical and research settings.&rdquo; The Pontifical Academy for Life stated in 2000 that &ldquo;on the basis of a complete biological analysis, the living human embryo is - from the moment of the union of the gametes - a human subject with a well-defined identity,&rdquo; and that as &ldquo;a human individual it has the right to its own life; and therefore every intervention which is not in favor of the embryo is an act which violates that right.&rdquo; &ldquo;Therefore,&rdquo; the statement added, &ldquo;the ablation of the inner cell mass (ICM) of the blastocyst, which critically and irremediably damages the human embryo, curtailing its development, is a gravely immoral act and consequently is gravely illicit.&rdquo; However, research to create chimeras causes more ethical problems, the USCCB stated, because these will be creatures &ldquo;whose very existence blurs the line between humanity and animals such as mice and rats.&rdquo; Thus, the moral obligations towards such a creature &ndash; like whether or not it is morally licit to destroy it &ndash; could be unclear. Human-animal chimera research can only be acceptable by using &ldquo;induced pluripotent stem cells&rdquo; under certain conditions, the National Catholic Bioethics Center explained. It must not involve &ldquo;the replication of major pillars of human identity in the &ldquo;brain systems&rdquo; of animals, they stated. Also, it cannot result in the growth of human reproductive cells in animals, and if that occurs, the creature &ndash; if it is an animal &ndash; &ldquo;should never be permitted to breed,&rdquo; they added. &ldquo;Research must not involve the production or reproductive use of human gametes or their progenitor lineages &ndash; the basic building blocks of human reproduction &ndash; within animals,&rdquo; the statement continued. &ldquo;Animals in which such lineages might unintentionally arise should never be permitted to breed, and derivation of any gametic cells or their progenitors from such animals or their corpses for reproductive purposes should be specifically prohibited.&rdquo; There are also legal concerns about federally-funded chimera research projects, the USCCB comments stated &ndash; namely that it violates existing law. &ldquo;The Dickey amendment forbids the use of federal funds to create a human embryo for research purposes, or to support any part of a research project in which a human embryo is destroyed, discarded, or subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that permitted for research involving live children in their mother&rsquo;s wombs,&rdquo; the comments stated. &ldquo;Forbidding the production of mixed human\/animal embryos was exactly what Congress intended by this language. NIH&rsquo;s proposal is contrary to this provision,&rdquo; the comments added. &nbsp;This article was originally published Sept. 6, 2016.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2016-09-06T22:40:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-11-26T23:40:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/A_scientist_holds_a_petri_dish_File_Photo_Credit_Umberto_Salvagnin_via_Flickr_CC_BY_20_CNA_2_3_15.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic\/","name":"What are human-animal chimeras, and why are they problematic?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-09-06T22:40:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-11-26T23:40:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Washington D.C., Nov 26, 2016 \/ 04:40 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- After the National Institutes of Health proposed federal funding of projects to possibly create a human-animal hybrid, Catholic ethicists voiced serious moral and legal concerns. &ldquo;For if one cannot tell to what extent, if any, the resulting organism may have human status or characteristics, it will be impossible to determine what one's moral obligations may be regarding that organism,&rdquo; Anthony Picarello and Michael Moses, general counsels for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in September comments to the National Institutes of Health Office of Science Policy. A month prior, the NIH proposed federally-funded projects to research human\/animal chimeras. The projects would involve injecting embryonic stem cells into animal embryos, with &ldquo;tremendous potential for disease modeling, drug testing, and perhaps eventual organ transplant,&rdquo; the NIH proposal stated. However, it recognized &ldquo;ethical and animal welfare concerns&rdquo; and put a temporary funding ban on such research. The NIH said it would accept public comments on the proposal through September 6. Federal funding for new research projects involving embryonic stem cells was stopped under the Bush administration, but re-opened under the Obama administration. President Bush had expressed moral concerns about the destruction of human embryos in the research. In comments submitted to NIH, the National Catholic Bioethics Center stated that using stem cells of human embryos for research is wrong because &ldquo;human beings at these vulnerable stages must be safeguarded, not exploited, in both clinical and research settings.&rdquo; The Pontifical Academy for Life stated in 2000 that &ldquo;on the basis of a complete biological analysis, the living human embryo is - from the moment of the union of the gametes - a human subject with a well-defined identity,&rdquo; and that as &ldquo;a human individual it has the right to its own life; and therefore every intervention which is not in favor of the embryo is an act which violates that right.&rdquo; &ldquo;Therefore,&rdquo; the statement added, &ldquo;the ablation of the inner cell mass (ICM) of the blastocyst, which critically and irremediably damages the human embryo, curtailing its development, is a gravely immoral act and consequently is gravely illicit.&rdquo; However, research to create chimeras causes more ethical problems, the USCCB stated, because these will be creatures &ldquo;whose very existence blurs the line between humanity and animals such as mice and rats.&rdquo; Thus, the moral obligations towards such a creature &ndash; like whether or not it is morally licit to destroy it &ndash; could be unclear. Human-animal chimera research can only be acceptable by using &ldquo;induced pluripotent stem cells&rdquo; under certain conditions, the National Catholic Bioethics Center explained. It must not involve &ldquo;the replication of major pillars of human identity in the &ldquo;brain systems&rdquo; of animals, they stated. Also, it cannot result in the growth of human reproductive cells in animals, and if that occurs, the creature &ndash; if it is an animal &ndash; &ldquo;should never be permitted to breed,&rdquo; they added. &ldquo;Research must not involve the production or reproductive use of human gametes or their progenitor lineages &ndash; the basic building blocks of human reproduction &ndash; within animals,&rdquo; the statement continued. &ldquo;Animals in which such lineages might unintentionally arise should never be permitted to breed, and derivation of any gametic cells or their progenitors from such animals or their corpses for reproductive purposes should be specifically prohibited.&rdquo; There are also legal concerns about federally-funded chimera research projects, the USCCB comments stated &ndash; namely that it violates existing law. &ldquo;The Dickey amendment forbids the use of federal funds to create a human embryo for research purposes, or to support any part of a research project in which a human embryo is destroyed, discarded, or subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that permitted for research involving live children in their mother&rsquo;s wombs,&rdquo; the comments stated. &ldquo;Forbidding the production of mixed human\/animal embryos was exactly what Congress intended by this language. NIH&rsquo;s proposal is contrary to this provision,&rdquo; the comments added. &nbsp;This article was originally published Sept. 6, 2016.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/09\/what-are-human-animal-chimeras-and-why-are-they-problematic\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What are human-animal chimeras, and why are they problematic?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}