Hybrid embryo research unveiled

FOR the first time in Britain, researchers at Newcastle University have created human-animal hybrid embryos, amid an ongoing political row about a disputed embryo research bill that is due to be put to parliament next month.

The research, which was announced on Tuesday, has yet to be published or verified, with a spokesman for the university telling AFP news agency that the institution “wouldn’t claim it to be final at all”. It was first presented at a lecture in Tel Aviv on March 25.

The revelation comes as British MPs were locked in a fierce battle over the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which would allow for the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for medical research.