Manimal -- New species in Britain?

The British Parliament has given final approval to a bill that legalizes research combining human and animal embryos.

Dr. David Stevens of the Christian Medical Association objects to this "Frankenstein" approach. "Scientists combining human DNA and animal DNA is grossly unethical. It blurs the line between humans and animals. It blurs male and female, parent and child. It's an assault on human dignity and the integrity of the human species," Stevens contends.
 
According to Stevens, there is also a huge moral question, which many scientists are apparently ignoring. "It takes away from the uniqueness of human beings and the fact that we are made in God's image. It crosses a moral divide in medicine, from which it's going to be very difficult to step back ... in the years to come," Stevens explains.
 
Moreover, he argues there is little chance it will do any good in terms of solving medical puzzles. Stevens calls the research dangerous and unnecessary.
 
"Creating the embryos opens the possibility of increasing the virulence of certain viral and bacterial diseases as you combine animal and human cellular material into the same cell," he explains. "We don't know what the effect's going to be. One scientist said it's like children playing with land mines. We don't know what this technology is going to do to human beings," Stevens adds.
 
At the same time, there have been tremendous advances in treating medical problems through adult stem cells. Stevens calls for support for two bills in Congress that call for a ban on human-animal embryo research.