Nature reveals that British researchers have been given the green light to create embryos from human DNA implanted in animal cells. Just don’t call them “human-animal hybrids”:
The embryos — called ‘cybrid’ embryos because they are not true hybrids but rather contain human DNA with cell cytoplasm from animals — could yield stem cells containing the donor DNA of patients with a range of diseases.
Minger argues that the use of empty animal eggs is currently the only ethical way to generate these stem cells, because the technique requires many egg cells that would otherwise have to be gathered from human egg donations.
Now, if this was the Marvel comics universe, we know what would happen next – a generation of people treated with cybrid stem cells would start gaining animal-like powers. Or possibly start growing ram-like horns. But we’re not going to let that happen, are we?