Pope Francis Blesses Human-animal Chimeras

Human Cells Grown in Farm Animals

According to Izpisua Belmonte, he consulted with Pope Francis about the research and received a favorable response.

“Spain is a very Catholic country, so we had to go through the Pope. He very nicely said yes.” Belmonte told Scientific American. “Yes. The current Pope. So the Vatican is behind this research and has no problem based on the idea is to help humankind [sic]. And in theory all that we will be doing is killing pigs.”

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Vatican’s scientific body, did not respond to an e-mail seeking to confirm Pope Francis’s position.

After placing human cells into animal embryos, researchers are watching to see what they do. The likely result is that a small percentage of human cells spread throughout the animal’s body. Belmonte’s eventual hope is to channel the human contribution so that it forms a complete human heart or other organ inside a pig or cow. Such an organ could be used to transplant into a needy patient.

While the Catholic Church has opposed research on human embryos, it endorses evolution and generally takes a liberal view on scientific matters. In fact, the Vatican’s position on “human-animal chimeras,” as the mixtures are known, may be more liberal than that of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which in September instituted a ban on funding “chimera” research until it can weigh ethical questions associated with it.

Actually, the research is not just about killing pigs, it uses human tissue in farm animals, and the ultimate outcome is unknown. While Izpisua Belmonte may be totally dedicated to benign and even helpful research to benefit humans with health conditions that are now untreatable, there will also be the unscrupulous researcher who decides to create life itself from a test tube.

The ethics and morality of that scenario is much more troubling, and may not be something that is contemplated by Pope Francis. However, once that genie is let out of the bottle, it will be difficult to put it back. And in areas of science, it should be remembered that just because man can do some particularly amazing thing does not mean that he should. This research needs some serious ethical pondering before it goes down a road from which it cannot return.

Source: technologyreview.com