SHOULD scientists be allowed to inject genetic material from animals into human cells?
That is the question the country's bioethics watchdog is throwing open to Singaporeans.
The Bioethics Advisory Committee (BAC) will hold its second public forum this Saturday on the issue of splicing animal genes into human DNA.
The issue is already hotly debated in countries like the United States and United Kingdom. Opponents fear that tinkering with the human genome puts science on the slippery slope to creating animal-human hybrids.
Feedback from the two forums will help shape a report that will eventually be presented to Parliament for a ruling on such research some time next year.
Local laws currently neither prohibit nor allow the mixing of the genes, called chimera research.
But scientists here have yet to embark on the work, named after the mythical creature with a lion's head, goat's body and serpent's tail.
Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.
