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First came the prospect of pigs incubating human organs. Now a medical ethicist is raising new moral questions by suggesting scientists create human-animal chimeras to produce human eggs.

While the goal, for now, would be to create a ready supply of eggs purely for biomedical research purposes, should the hybrid human eggs turn out to be as good as ones produced by humans, “I do not see any reason for not using them for treating human infertility,” said César Palacios-González, of the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics at King’s College London.

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In a commentary in Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Palacios-González tests arguments against creating chimeras for human gamete production, and finds all of them wanting.

“Despite ongoing research and scientific and ethical discussions about the development of chimeras capable of producing solid organs such as kidneys and hearts for transplantation purposes,” he writes, “no wide discussion of the possibility of creating chimeras-IHGP (intended for human gamete production) has taken place.” If anything, scientists have fallen over themselves to reassure the public steps will be taken to avoid creating such creatures.