PATENT REQUEST ON HUMAN-ANIMAL HYBRIDS

NEW YORK, Apr 2 (LSN) – Stuart A. Newman, a cellular biologist at New York Medical College in Valhalla has applied for a patent on a method for making creatures that are part human and part animal, as well as a patent on the creatures themselves. Although Newman has not created such creatures and says he never intends to, he submitted the patent application in order to ignite debate in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on the controversial practice of allowing patents on living creatures.  The patent office has awarded several patents on animals with minor human components, including laboratory mice engineered with human cancer genes or human immune-system cells. Newman’s application is for a technique in which human embryo cells would be mixed with embryo cells from a monkey, ape or other animal. Ethicists note that the debate on the issue would centre around what is means to be human, and would lead to questions such as what percentage of a creature would have to be human to preclude slavery-type ownership.  Of greatest concern in today’s coverage of the issue in The Washington Post is that this experimentation would be legal if done using private money, since the only prohibition involving research on human embryos has to do with the use of federal funding.