Earlier this month the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it is planning to lift its ban on federal funding of some research that creates chimeras by injecting human stem cells into animal embryos. The policy changeraises significant ethical concerns, both aboutthe prudence of creating animal-human hybrids and legitimacy of using taxpayerfunding for such controversial research.

Unfortunately, while many people are unfamiliar with the research, it is not a new development.Chinese scientistsbegan in 2003 by fusing human cells with rabbit eggs to produce the first human-animal chimeras. And a few years later researchers at the Mayo Clinic created pigs with human blood in their veins and scientists at the University of Nevada created sheep whose livers and hearts are largely human.

Thankfully, some Christians have already helped lay the groundwork for how we should think about this research. Almost exactly a decade ago, Acton senior research fellowJordan Ballor wrote a five part seriespresenting a biblical-theological case against the creation of certain kinds of human-animal chimeras: Part I, II, III, IV, V.

Christians can’t afford to ignore this issuefor another decade, so take the time today to begin developing an informed opinion about this controversy.