Technique and morals, now an abyss

Everything that is technically feasible is now also considered morally lawful, indeed a duty. The first human-ape chimera embryos arrive. They are the result of the extraordinary research published in Cell magazine, led by the American institute Salk and conducted in collaboration with China, in which human stem cells have been transferred into monkey embryos. The chimeras continued to develop for three weeks. It is a prairie of possibilities for science. Developmental diseases that are currently impossible to study will be understood by considering the fourteen-day limit on human embryo research. Not to mention the mirage of organs with regenerative medicine. “Since we are unable to do some types of experiments in humans, it is essential to have better models to be able to conduct more appropriate studies to understand human biology and disease,” notes the research coordinator. Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, of the Laboratory of Biological Sciences of the Salk Institute.