Because Dr. Frankenstein wasn't progressive enough
UK scientists have applied for permission to create embryos by fusing human DNA with cow eggs.
Researchers from Newcastle University and Kings College, London, have asked the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for a three-year licence.
The hybrid human-bovine embryos would be used for stem cell research and would not be allowed to develop for more than a few days.
But critics say it is unethical and potentially dangerous.
I guess they want to create a missteak or perhaps dairy farms will start delivering the milk of human kindness.
Kathy Shaidle's headline was Don't have a man-cow.
Known as 
To a former Episcopalian, it sounds like they are attempting to produce a Bishop.
This is actually (slightly) less scary than it sounds.
What they are trying to do is removing the "goodies" (DNA, etc.) from the inside of a bovine ovum (egg) and replacing it with entirely human DNA. This is Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (aka, cloning), only it uses a different host cell (bovine, rather than human).
The resulting embryo is a human clone, not a Frankenstein-esque mix.
So...this is simply an alternate method of cloning. Still morally reprehensible, but not quite what the headline claims.
God Bless,
RyanL
I am waiting for the inevitable jokes and/or bad horror movies. Man-cow hybrid...can we say "Minotaur", boys and girls?
Isn't Man-Cow a talk show host from the Chicago area?
Isn't the basis for The Island of Doctor Moreau based on a mad scientist who creates hybrids of humans and animals?
Ryan is correct, though; it probably won't result in a hybrid. But, as he said, it is still wrong.
Yikes! This isn't good.
I just read Theseus and the Minotaur to my students at school. Is this a teachable moment?
I'm afraid it's a little more complicated than RyanL suggests. Some of the what determines how an embryo develops into a fetus is the protein structure of the initial egg. And certainly the proteins expressed on the surface of the cells are determined that way -- this is why the existing stem cell lines that Bush says are OK, are actually fairly useless for research; the cells are contaminated with mouse surface proteins, just from having been fed on mouse serum. I'm pro-stem-cell-research, but lean towards opposing this move simply because I expect little value from it, while finding the political, ethical, and medical issues (do we really want to be engineering vectors that could help animal diseases to cross over to people?) fairly significant.
Oh, and the original Island of Dr Moreau involves a scientist using vivisection (the then-current "weird" science activity, opposed by humane secularists and religionists alike) to reshape animals into human-like creatures. The premise (that form determines function) is, of course, sort of silly. But it's a good book.