IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics

In April 2007, as part of its public consultation initiative, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in the United Kingdom published Hybrids and chimeras: A consultation on the ethical and social implications of creating human/ animal embryos in research. This HFEA document identifies a number of possible arguments against the creation of human/animal embryos. One of these arguments concerns the worry that human/animal embryos "might be transferred to a woman to create babies with some animal DNA in them." Although the HFEA dismisses this slippery slope argument, I argue that this possible future is not as farfetched as one might think. For example, human admixed embryos might be transferred to women in an effort to prevent the transmission of mitochondrial diseases. The ethical acceptability of this possible future practice is examined from different feminist perspectives with a focus on issues of reproductive freedom and social justice.