Expect Protests in 3… 2… 1…

Scientists in Britain have started creating genetically modified embryos to use for research purposes. It appears that they’re only using embryos that were discarded from fertility clinics, are destroying the embryos after five days, and won’t be implanting any of these genetically modified embryos into a uterus where it could potentially grow up to become Ricardo Montalban and take over the world in a series of wars between genetically modified humans and the normal variety.

Don’t worry fundies (or trekkies), this isn’t going to happen any time soon thanks to strict regulation!

 I don’t imagine for a moment that the strict regulation surrounding this endeavor will stop religious groups from protesting it long and loud, despite the potential medical advances that could be made by studying these modified embryos. The fundies would rather live in a world where their invisible friend in the sky got to pick who wins and who loses in the genetic lottery rather than having humanity work it out for ourselves so we can fix all of those potentially lethal errors that the great Creator left lurking in our base pairs. At the very least they’re destroying fertilized embryos, and we’ve seen how they all get their panties in a twist every time a blastocyst is blended in the name of science rather than being thrown out and wasted.

There are serious ethical concerns that need to be raised and dealt with when it comes to genetically modifying embryos. If scientists perfect these techniques then it might only be a quick hop, skip, and a jump from curing alzheimers in the womb to a visit from ‘ol Khan up there. But the debate over these legitimate ethical concerns are going to be clouded by masses of religious sheep bleating about the sanctity of a non-sentient clustering of cells that will otherwise never see the light of day.

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