Scientist seeks patent control of "human-animals"
Are they cloning us?<g>
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A scientist in New York has applied for a patent on a process for making creatures that would be part human and part animal, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
It said Stuart Newman, a cellular biologist at New York Medical Center in Valhalla, did not want to make the creatures but wanted to stop anyone else from making them.
"It's going to force the patent office to deal with some uncomfortable questions," Newman, who helped found the Council for Responsible Genetics, told the newspaper.
He was not immediately available for comment on the Post's report.
The newspaper quoted Newman as saying he wanted to force a national debate on the creation of such creatures.
Technically, they already exist. Mice, rabbits, sheep and cows already carry human genes for making products ranging from alpha anti-trypsin, used to treat cystic fibrosis, to lactoferrin, which can boost the immune system.
There are patents on such creatures, known as chimeras. What Newman is worried about is a technique for growing a chimera from human and animal embryo cells.
His technique, described in the science journal Nature, would involve mixing human cells with the cells of an animal-perhaps a chimpanzee, which is closely related genetically.
Similar methods were used to make "geeps," a chimeric animal that is part-sheep and part-goat.
Newman told the Post people and apes are more closely related than sheep and goats. "I think it's very reasonable to assume that at least some of these would develop into a full animal," he said. |
