Creation of 'Quasi-Embryos' is "Morally Repugnant"

Canadian Biotechnology Expert Denounces the Creation of 'Quasi-Embryos' as "Morally Repugnant"

VICTORIA, December 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last week, LifeSiteNews.com reported that a member of the US President's Council on Bioethics proposed the creation of genetically engineered 'biological artifacts' that he claimed, though capable of producing embryonic stem cells, would not technically be embryos. This proposal was heralded as a means of skirting the ethical barrier to obtaining embryonic cells, which requires the killing of human beings in the embryonic stage of life.

Speaking with LifeSiteNews.com, Dr. Clem Persaud, a retired Professor of Microbiology and Biotechnology, called the proposal "deeply flawed." He said that the process would not create an unknown 'new entity,' but a severely disabled, cloned human being. "The process amounts to a kind of germ-line genetic engineering combined with a type of cloning to produce an aberrant human embryo. Deliberately producing a deformed human being, then destroying it to harness stem cells is morally repugnant, and is a clear case of ends justifying means."

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