We have created human-animal embryos already, say British team

Embryos containing human and animal material have been created in Britain for the first time,

admixed embryos” by adding human DNA to empty cow eggs in the first experiment of its kind in Britain.

It is already illegal to culture human-animal embryos for more than 14 days, or to implant them in the womb of a woman or animal, and these prohibitions will remain in the new legislation.

Using cow eggs reflects a short supply of human eggs. There are also ethical difficulties involved in collecting human eggs for research, as the donation process carries a small risk to women.

“We now have preliminary data which looks promising but this is very much work in progress and the next step is to get the embryos to survive to around six days, when we can hope-fully derive stem cells from them.”