British scientists are seeking permission to create hybrid embryos by fusing human cells with rabbit eggs. If granted consent by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, they will use the embryos to produce stem cells that carry genetic defects, in the hope that studying them will help understand mechanisms behind incurable human diseases.

Professor Chris Shaw at King’s College London, and Professor Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly , see the experiement as a way of overcoming the shortage of fresh human eggs available for research. “The fertility of rabbits is legendary,” said Prof Shaw.

To make the embryo, a human skin cell would be taken from a person with motor neurone disease and injected into a hollowed-out rabbit egg. The resulting embryo would contain only a tiny amount of rabbit DNA. The rest of the DNA would be human. If the experiment is successful, within a week, the egg will have divided to form a tiny ball of a 200 or so cells, from which stem cells could be extracted.

Professor Sir John Gurdon, a Cambridge University researcher said: “I don’t see it as a human embryo, but it all comes back to the question of when you think life begins. Scientifically, though, I’m not persuaded it will work. If you put cells from one species into the egg of another, the egg may divide, but you could get a lot of genetic abnormality that won’t lead to good quality stem cells.”

Via The Guardian and BBC News.