Commonwealth Policy Center

An international team of scientists this week combined the DNA from monkey’s and human beings. No, this isn’t some science fiction out of the Planet of the Apes, it’s a real life experimentation that happened in a Chinese lab, where ethical restrictions are lax. The scientists injected 25 human stem cells each into 132 fertilized macaque monkey embryos. The embryos lived for nearly three weeks. One scientists said the goal of the research was to study how cells of different species might work together during early phases of growth. Another scientist believes they could possibly grow transplant-ready human organs. While some good may be possible, have these scientists considered the downside? Of which the biggest is that ethical boundaries are crossed when man tries to play God.