Welcome to The Island of Dr. Moreau - Patent allows creation of man-animal hybrid
Pastor Dale Morgan
Welcome to The Island of Dr. Moreau - Patent allows creation of
man-animal hybrid*
Special report: the ethics of genetics
Antony Barnett, public affairs editor
The Observer
A biotech company has taken out a Europe-wide patent on a process which
campaigners claim would allow 'chimeric' animals to be developed with
body parts originating from humans.
An Australian company, Amrad, was granted the patent last year, which
covers embryos containing cells both from humans and from 'mice, sheep,
pigs, cattle, goats or fish'.
Church groups have already reacted with outrage, denouncing the patent
as 'morally offensive'.
Details in the patent do not make it clear what use these mixed-species
embryos would be put to, but experts are in no doubt that the potential
is there to create a hybrid creature.
Dr Sue Mayer, director of Genewatch, said: 'The company is saying that
it wants a patent on a process which could produce chimeric animals
using cells from a whole range of species including humans. Many people
will find the thought abhorrent.'
A spokesman for the Catholic Church said: 'To patent a process where
human life is used as a kind of bank to deposit into animals is morally
indefensible.'
Dr Donald Bruce, a spokesman for European churches on bioethics, said:
'This patent should never have been passed. If people are talking about
using human cells in animals, that is completely unacceptable.'
The European Patent Office claimed it would never grant a patent on
mixed-species embryos as they are considered against 'public order and
morality'. But this patent, discovered by a researcher in Greenpeace's
German office, was taken out in January 1999 and has since been sold to
US company Chemicon International.
Thomas Schweiger of Greenpeace called on the European Patent Office to
withdraw it. He said: 'The chimeras may be non-human but they may
contain human organs, body parts, nerve cells and even human genetic
codes. The company does not give concrete medical uses and obviously
intended to give the company broad monopoly rights on the process and
chimeric creatures.'
Schweiger believes that one possible use might be to grow human organs
in animals for transplantation.
According to the patent the chimera-creating process starts by isolating
a special hormone, the objective of which is to stimulate the growth of
embryonic cells; known as stem cells. These stem cells are the 'master
cells' which could in theory be used to produce virtually any type of
replacement tissue for a damaged body.
Amrad chief executive John Grace denied his company had ever conducted
research in this field and said the patent would not be used to create
animals with human cells. He said the process was mainly used to produce
genetically engineered mice for research.