The Scientific Council of the Polish Bishops’ Conference has issued an official statement declaring the creation of hybrid organisms morally inadmissible. In their statement, the bishops express their opinion on the recent announcement of the creation of hybrid embryos, i.e. using a mixture of human and animal cells for purposes of scientific research. The new development was announced on 5 September by the British HFEA (The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority). “Scientists are not able to establish whether the organism created following the unification of human and animal genetic information is a human or animal organism”, say the bishops. And continuing their reflection, they observe: “Irrespective of whether the embryo created in this way satisfies or not the criteria that would permit it to be defined as a human organism, the creation of hybrid organisms is to be considered morally unacceptable. For if the embryo satisfies these criteria, we would then be dealing with a human being in the most precocious phase of its development, and hence with someone who, as a human being, enjoys the inalienable status as a person, and this excludes both the possibility of using it as a means to an end and, in particular, the possibility of sacrificing it to save other human beings (whereas hybrid organisms are created precisely with this objective in mind)”. According to the bishops, “uncertainty about whether a hybrid embryo should be classified as a human being or an animal may prejudice the admissibility of the experiment, inasmuch as the mere presumption that we are dealing with a human life is enough to reject any action that would threaten this life. If on the other hand it were to be demonstrated that hybrid organisms are not human beings, the problem would remain of manipulation: that of a human being and, more precisely, of its biological nature”.
