Alert: Cow-Men on the Loose!!!

A pretty evenhanded piece from The Times (UK) discussing Parliament's decision to strike down an amendment that would have outlawed so-called "cybrids", created by the injection of human DNA into empty non-human eggs.


The move is intended to expand existing stem cell research (not to create living, breathing man-beasts), by affording scientists a whole new source of embryonic stem cells. Although this is a relatively minor change from the status quo (strict limits have been placed on how long the embryo can develop), I'm sure that socially conservatives on both sides of the pond will try to turn this into some sort of Frankenstein-esque experiment foreshadowing man's Fall.

You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, or all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the increase of the vineyard will become defiled.
You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
You shall not wear a material mixed of wool and linen together.
- Deuteronomy 22:9-11

This is of course the same rationale for segregation but who needs science or reason or expertise when you have the Bible?!