embryosof research on cytoplasmic hybrid Fearing a non-existing Minotaur? The ethical

ABSTRACTIn this paper we address the ethical challenges ofresearch on cytoplasmic hybrid embryos, or ‘‘cybrids’’.The controversial pronouncement of the UK’s HumanEmbryology and Fertilisation Authority of September 2007on the permissibility of this area of research is the startingpoint of our discussion, and we argue in its favour. By arigorous definition of the entities at issue, we show howthe terms ‘‘chimera’’ and ‘‘hybrid’’ are improper in thecase of cybrids, and how their use can bias the debatecreating moral prejudices. After analysing the scientificaspects of cybrids research and sketching out currentalternatives, we enter the ethical debate, starting fromthe premise that research on early human embryos isethically permissible under some circumstances. Weemphasise how research on cybrids has positiveconsequences in terms of scientific and therapeuticapplications, since it allows the derivation of humanembryonic stem cells genetically tailored to the somaticcell donor. Such cell lines offer a unique in vitro modelboth for studies of human pathogenesis and for drugscreening and discovery. Research on cybrids alsocircumvents the problem of the scarcity of human oocytesand their ethically dubious donation. Finally, we object tothe most common arguments against cybrids research,that is, moral repugnance, the slippery slope argument,the appeal to ‘‘nature’’, and the unfair distribution ofeconomical resources.What are cytoplasmic hybrid embryos, also knownas ‘‘cybrids’’? Chimeras, hybrids or something else?They have been the object of a firestorm ofcontroversy in the media, after the September2007 decision of the UK’s Human Fertilisation andEmbryology Authority (HFEA) to permit researchon them.