The British Parliament in the Island of Dr. Moreau

British Parliament has now approved one of the horrors that has always been rejected by ethics, says the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Members of Parliament approved 336-176 on Monday evening the creation of hybrid embryos, made by introducing human DNA into animal ova. The measure aims to compensate for a "shortage" of human embryos used for embryonic stem cell research.

Bishop Elio Sgreccia told Vatican Radio that the law is particularly grave from the ethical point of view since "it constitutes an offense against the dignity of man. It is an attempt of fertilization between species that until how has been prohibited by all the laws on artificial fertilization."

"Human-animal union, even if it is not sexual, represents one of the horrors that has always brought rejection in ethics," he said.

The prelate emphasized that "every time the wall between man and animal has been broken, very grave consequences, even involuntary ones, have arisen."

“Each preserved the quality of its particular species: the human mark distorted but did not hide the leopard, the ox, or the sow, or other animal or animals, from which the creature had been moulded”.

Now that last quote is not from the prelate, but a quote from the book “Island of Dr. Moreau”. It is an 1896 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells, addressing ideas of society and community, human nature and identity, playing God and Darwinism. Today, the British Parliament appears to be playing God, and the “Island of Dr. Moreau” do not appear as fiction anymore.