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The United States Health Agency, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced that it is waiting for funding from the country’s government, to conduct a study that will mix human cells into the embryos of animals.

However, according to the NIH, the study could lead to major breakthroughs to tackle diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.  The agency also believes the controversial study could also be used to grow organs needed for human transplants, solving the acute shortage of body parts for transplant in patients who need them.

In 2009, the NIH issued Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research. The Guidelines prohibited the use of human cells in the fusion of animals, as well as breeding of animals using human eggs or sperm cells. This was lauded by activists against human-animal hybrids.

In 2015, the agency again issued a moratorium on research on the use of human cells into the brains of animals. However, the NIH says it has changed its mind, and now wants to venture into a field it proscribed in the past. Critics worry that it will raise serious ethical issues.

 According to critics of the study, the proposed study by the NIH is likely to raise complex ethical issues, especially considering what is deemed acceptable in today’s society. Critics believe it is highly unethical to alter the brain of an animal with human cells, considering the fact that animals cannot talk for humans to know their decision.

A New York Medical College researcher Stuart Newman says if the study is given the backing by the government, it will expose animals to suffering, which the researchers may not be aware. He adds that the study is an area the NIH should not be allowed to investigate.

“Let’s say that we have pigs with human brains and they are wondering why we are doing experiments on them. What if we had human bodies with animal brains, and then you say, ‘Well they are not really humans, we can do experiments on them and harvest organs from them. I am coming up with extreme scenarios, but just making these chimeric embryos 15 or 20 years ago was considered an extreme scenario. It is just a road that we should not go down. We don’t have any laws in this country that would stop doing those things,” Newman says.