US Government gives go-ahead to research to grow part-animal part-human organs for transplants

The federal government is planning to lift a moratorium on funding of controversial experiments that use human stem cells to create animal embryos that are partly human. The National Institutes of Health has unveiled a new policy to permit scientists to get federal money to make the embryos, known as chimeras, under certain carefully monitored conditions. The NIH imposed a moratorium on funding these experiments in September because they could raise ethical concerns. Scientists have started to grow human organs inside pigs, in an attempt to solve the worldwide shortage for transplants. Researchers are interested in growing human tissues and organs in animals by introducing pluripotent human cells into early animal embryos.