Reading report

Name: Cristina Soledad Guzmán
Date:September 3
Title: Scientists' plea to use new hybrid embryos
Source: www.guardian.co.uk Date of publication: Sunday August 26 2007

Vocabulary

Plea: 1. An earnest request; appeal. 2. An excuse; pretext. 3. Law. The answer of the accused to a charge or indictment.
Slaughter: 3. To butcher (animals) for food. 4. To kill brutally or in large numbers.
Tissue: 5. Biology. a. A group of cells that are similar in form or function. b. Cellular matter in general.
Yuck: Used to express rejection or strong disgust.
by-product: 1. Something produced in the making of something else. 2. A side effect.
overhaul: 1. a. To examine carefully. b. To repair thoroughly. 2. To overtake.
appall: To fill with horror or dismay.
bow: 1. To bend the body, head, or knee in order to express greeting, consent, courtesy, or veneration. 2. To acquiesce; submit. 3. To remove oneself; withdraw.
random: 1. Having no specific pattern or purpose. 2. Statistics. Of or relating to equal probability of selection or occurrence for each member of a group.
sole: Being the only one; single. sole“ly adv.

Main ideas
¨ British scientist made a plea to create the first animal-human embryos.
¨ The decision will be announced nest week.
¨ The issue is controversial because it consist of taking an animal egg, removing its genetic material and putting DNA from a human cell into it.
¨ Some campaigners and religious groups argue that it is unethical.
¨ These hybrids will be used to understand more about a range of neurological diseases.
¨ Scientists would use eggs taken from ovaries of cows that are slaughtered rather than from a human donated egg.
¨ To do this work a large number of embryos will be needed.
¨ To use cows`eggs is more practical than asking women to donate their eggs for research.
¨ Although the government was initially against the concept, it is now proposing to allow partial hybrids.

¨ The move has prompted strong protests from religious and anti-abortion groups.

¨ The Catholic Church has made clear its opposition.


Personal reaction

This article is about a plea that British scientists made to create the first animal-human embryos.
In my opinion, it is difficult to take a position whether against or supporting this tissue without having detailed information about it. But it is also true that it is a quite controversial issue because of the fact that scientist will be allowed to manipulate human and animal cells with results that are not predictable.
Until now they have been studying human diseases with human hybrid embryos, and mixing animal and human cells may not give the expected results.
As it is very important for the whole humanity to find new treatments and possible cures for many diseases, ethically speaking I think that diseases are the most important arguments for the application of these scientific practices. But if the plea is aproved, what will come next?