President

Stephen Minger wrote on the 14 th of December 2008, directing us to read
one of his scientific articles (S. Minger, Interspecies SCNT derived human
embryos- a new way forward for regenerative medicine, “Regenerative Med.”,
2007, 2, pp. 103-106), in which he explained his experiment’s ratio.
Emily Jackson’s answer, received on the 9 th of January 2009, is printed at
the end of this remark, after the questions.
In the document “Chimeras and hybrids” approved by the NBC we can
find many of the scientific objections which are the object of the
abovementioned questions.
The creation of cybrids for the aforesaid purposes, as it is presented, in
the current state does not seem to have any chance of success. The objection
often posed is that the purpose of any research is to answer unsolved
problems, and to increase the level of knowledge. This aspect is more closely
looked at in the attached document, and I would not repeat its arguments here.
I simply observe that, as any researcher who has asked for founding at least
once will know, every project has its ratio, and it is the researcher’s task to
prove its feasibility. If a line of research has been shown to be impossible to
follow, if it has already failed, if it has presented some insurmountable or
irresolvable problems, it is unfeasible to continue proposing it in the same
terms.
All this – that is, the possibility of creating man/cow cybrids or not – should
have been the object of debate within the scientific community, but superficial
information has spread the idea that the experiment is valid and concretely
feasible, influencing also the political debate, and directing the English one in
particular towards the legalisation of such experiments.
According to the writer, Stephen Minger’s and Emily Jackson’s answers
did not clarify the queries posed in the questions, but I believe that it is
important to make the questions and answers known, in order to allow
everyone a personal evaluation.
***
Questions to Stephen Minger:
1. You wish to produce cytoplasmatic hybrid embryos. To do so, you
intend to use a technique that at this point is widely considered ineffective and
unhealthy for the animals created.
It is well known from the scientific literature that the rate of success of
Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer is 1-2% for the cloning of animals and zero for
the cloning of humans. Ten years since the Dolly sheep cloning, this technique
has failed to produce any human embryonic stem cell. The only thing SCNT
actually produced is Korean veterinary Hwang Woo Suk's well known fraud.
The importance of mitochondria in the establishment of oocyte functional
competence and early development was recently reviewed.
Many advanced the idea that SCNT's failure is due to incompatibility
between mitochondrial and nuclear DNA among individuals belonging to the
same species.
The cytoplasmatic hybrid embryos you would produce would have both
animal mitochondrial DNA and human nuclear DNA. That is to say, these
embryos would inherit DNA from different species.
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