We have created human-animal embryos already, say British team "A team at Newcastle University announced yesterday that it had successfully generated “admixed embryos” by adding human DNA to empty cow eggs in the first experiment of its kind in Britain." Times Online
India Nurtures Business of Surrogate Motherhood "Surrogacy is an area fraught with ethical and legal uncertainties. Critics argue that the ease with which relatively rich foreigners are able to “rent” the wombs of poor Indians creates the potential for exploitation. Although the government is actively promoting India as a medical tourism destination, what some see as an exchange of money for babies has made many here uncomfortable." NY Times
Q&A: Hybrid embryos "Researchers say the work is needed to advance the understanding of complex diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Motor Neurone Disease. But critics say it involves the needless destruction of human life, and is fraught with moral difficulties."
BBC
"The discovery, if it holds up, would decisively solve the raw material problem. It should provide an unlimited supply of stem cells without the ethically controversial embryo destruction and the restrictions on federal financing that have impeded work on human embryonic cells. But scientists still face the challenge of taking that abundant raw material and turning it into useful medical treatments, like replacement tissue for damaged hearts and brains. And that challenge will be roughly as daunting for the new cells as it has been for the embryonic stem cells."
Now that embryonic stem cell research may no longer require the destruction of human life, is it just a coinicidence that the NY Times is emphasizing how far scientists still have to go to develop successful treatments?