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Americans Overwhelmingly Support Human-Animal Chimera Research, Survey Finds

Over 80% of surveyed Americans expressed support for some aspect of the research, which is currently under moratorium and aims to implant human stem cells into animals to grow organs for transplant.
Americans Overwhelmingly Support Human-Animal Chimera Research, Survey Finds
Image: Joern Pollex / Staff via Getty

Over half of Americans accept three major aspects of human-animal chimeric embryo research—which is not currently funded in the U.S.—according to the results of a new survey. 

Chimeric embryo research could eventually provide a new source of organs for transplant, but it exists in an ethical gray zone that has not yet been resolved.

The survey results were presented in a paper published in the journal Stem Cell Reports on Thursday. Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed said they accepted all three steps of the research, and 82 percent accepted at least the first step.

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“We found that over 80 percent of the American public accepted at least some aspect of this type of research,” said Francis Shen, co-first author of the study and a law professor at the University of Minnesota. “To me, this was the most interesting finding, because there are many areas of stem cell research where—and we don't have to look too far back in U.S. history—it was so of concern to the American public and to their representatives that researchers weren't even allowed to carry it out.”

Scientists form human-animal chimeric embryos by injecting animal embryos with human induced pluripotent stem cells. Unlike embryonic stem cells, the kind of stem cells used in this research are derived from a tiny amount of an adult’s skin and blood cells. These cells have been reprogrammed to regain stem cells’ ability to differentiate, or become multiple specialized cell types.

In the survey, researchers first asked 430 respondents if injecting induced pluripotent stem cells into a genetically modified pig embryo that lacked the ability to make a pancreas was acceptable to them. Those who answered “yes” were then asked if inserting the embryo into the uterus of a female pig in order to carry a pig with a human pancreas to term was acceptable. Finally, those who answered “yes” again were asked if transplanting the human pancreas from the pig to a person was acceptable to them.

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While chimeric research is not illegal in the U.S., the National Institutes of Health has placed a moratorium on its funding since 2015, effectively dissuading all but international collaboration on the subject. Japan, where studying chimeric embryos beyond 14 days had been banned, started allowing the research in 2019. Independently, researchers have successfully created chimeric human-pig and human-monkey embryos.

A greater percentage of Americans supported the steps of chimeric embryo research than members of the Japanese public polled in a similar survey from 2017. To Shen, a majority of people accepting this research speaks to the fact that it is relatively new and not yet politicized. He added that now is a good time to rethink policies around chimeric embryo research like the NIH’s moratorium, and that public opinion should factor into these discussions.

“The moratorium discussion is not just a battle of public opinion; it has to involve more than that, but I think it should be sensitive to, and reflective in part of, public opinion,” he said. 

“I think there needs to be an explanation for why, even if large parts of the American public are interested in going forward with this research, there would still be such a strong moratorium.”