Reading report nº 1

Name: Cristina Soledad Guzmán
Date: April,20th
Title: First British human-animal hybrid embryos created by scientists
Source: www.guardian.co.uk Date of publication: Wednesday April 2 2008


Vocabulary:
Breakthrough: n. 1. An act of overcoming or penetrating an obstacle or restriction. 2. A major success that permits further progress, as in technology.
Pave way: v. paved pav·ing1. To cover with pavement. 2. To make progress easier.
Hollowed-out: adj. hol·low·er hol·low·est1. Having a cavity or space within. 2. a. Deeply concave. B. Sunken; indented: hollow cheeks. 3. Without substance or character. See synonyms at vain. 4. Devoid of truth; specious. 5. Having a deep reverberating sound. N. 6. A cavity or interior space. 7. An indented or concave surface or area. 8. A void. 9. Also hol·ler v. 10. To make hollow.
Scarcity: if there is a scarcity of sth, there is not enough of it and it is difficult to obtain it SYN shortage.
Semolina: n. 1. Gritty coarse particles of wheat left after bolting and used for pasta.
Caution: n. 1. Careful forethought to avoid danger or harm. 2. A warning or admonition. V. 3. To warn.
Granted: v. 1. To consent to the fulfillment of. 2. To accord as a favor. 3. a. To bestow; confer. B. To transfer (property) by a deed. 4. To concede; acknowledge. N. 5. The act of granting. 6. a. Something granted. B. A giving of funds for a specific purpose. 7. a. A transfer of property by deed. B. The property so transferred. C. The deed of transfer.
Scrutiny: n. pl. Scru·ti·nies1. A close, careful examination.
Tizz: also tizzy: n. pl. Tiz·ziesSlang. 1. A state of nervous confusion; dither.
Deemed: deem v. 1. To judge; consider; think.


Main Ideas

Britain’s first human-animal hybrid embryos have been created.
The permission was gained in January to create “cytoplasmic hybrids”
The embryos were produced by inserting human DNA from a skin cell into a hollowed-out cow egg.
The embryos are expected to grow for six days and then extract stem cells from them.
The human fertilisation and embryology bill has faced condemnation from Catholic bishops.
Catholics object to the idea of creating life for the purposes of research.
John Burn, head fo the Institute of Human Genetics at Newcastle University said: ‘It`s never going to be anything other than a pile of cells... It gives us the tools to find out... how can we better understand the disease processes’.
The research has not yet been published, but scientists urged caution in interpreting the results.
This approach is likely to provide stem cells for research without the use of human eggs or normal human embryos.
The aim of the research is to advance human health
Using the nucleus from a very early embryonic cell might be easier to reprogramme than an adult cell.
For some people the research did not seem convincing because the embryos didn’t survive.

Personal reaction

Scientists are playing God, they seem to have created hybrid embryos out of human-animal embryos, but to what extent can science research go ?
Britain’s first human-animal hybrid embryos have been created. It is a crucial step towards a supply of stem cells that could be used for investigating debilitating and untreatable conditions. Catholics object to the idea of putting human and animal DNA in the same entity and to the notion of creating life for the purposes of research. But some people think that as the embryos did not survive, there is no convincing success in the research.
This article describes a new scientific method to obtain stem cells from an hybrid embryo created from human-animal cells. Scientifics are waiting for governmental approval to begin their investigations. The Catholic church as well as other scientists reject the project.
To sum up, as new technologies and procedures are developed new scientific testings are also being carried out, most of them based on experiments of ‘Frankenstein proportion’.