UK’s Parliament is discussing legislation that includes regulations governing research on early human and hybrid embryos. At the same time, the bill will seek to change the time limit on abortions; moving the time at which a pregnancy can be ended to earlier than the current 24-week term. I think these debates should not be conflated. One considers whether to allow the creation of early stage embryos in lab dishes by combining human and animal cells that will not be implanted in humans and will be destroyed before they can develop beyond the squashed-ball, the-size-of-a-pinhead stage. I don’t think anyone believes the chimeric embryos would even be capable of developing to full term, . The other considers the conditions under which a woman can choose to terminate a pregnancy.

An account from Nature.com is now available.

Here is a straightforward account from the Press Association and another from Reuters. The Science Media Centre has collected enorsements from prominent scientists and patient advocacy groups, that combining human chromosomes and animal eggs could lead to techniques for creating cells that could be used to treat devastating diseases.

Last year, Nature Reports summarized the UK Academy of Medical Sciences report on the benefits, risks, and unknowns on creating animal-human chimeras and comparing it to ethical guidelines from different scientific societies. Forgive the self-plug, but it’s one of the most comprehensive I’ve seen, particularly for something as short as it is. (If readers send in other good links, I’ll post them.)

One of the most-commented stories on the current parliamentary reading is an editorial in The Times. It’s a higher brow take of the argument implied in Monty Python’s tune Every sperm is sacred. It’s funny, but the real issue isn’t whether embryos have souls but what their moral status is and how that status dictates how they can be manipulated.

Is it okay, for example, to genetically modify a human embryo so that its early development can be studied? (Ethics committees overseeing research on human embryos require that embryos are not implanted or allowed to develop to certain developmental milestones. This embryo was destroyed after five days. Human embryonic stem cells, which are derived from human embryos, are frequently modified this way, but human embryonic stem cells do not form embryos.)

Again, those interested might want to start learning the parameters of the debate with our summary.