LONDON (CNS): Human embryos injected with animal cells, or chimeras, should be accorded human status under proposals to be considered by the British Parliament later this year, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales said.
They also said politicians should reconsider a proposed ban on the implantation of chimeras into women.
“In particular, it should not be a crime to transfer them, or other human embryos, to the body of the woman providing the ovum, in cases where a human ovum has been used to create them,” the bishops said.
“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,” they said.
The bishops’ June 20 submission to a parliamentary committee set up to scrutinise the draft Human Tissue and Embryo Bill was prepared by a committee overseen by Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff, Wales, who is chairman of the English and Welsh bishops’ Department for Christian Responsibility and Citizenship.
At present it is illegal in Britain to create embryos using a mix of human and animal genetic material, but the Government is proposing to allow scientists, for the first time, to create human-animal embryos for research as long as they are destroyed within two weeks.
The Government initially proposed to ban the creation of chimeras but changed its mind earlier this year under pressure from the scientific community.
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