Guest imported_El Mamerro Posted January 28, 2005 Share Posted January 28, 2005 Maryann Mott National Geographic News January 25, 2005 Scientists have begun blurring the line between human and animal by producing chimeras—a hybrid creature that's part human, part animal. Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University in 2003 successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs. The embryos were reportedly the first human-animal chimeras successfully created. They were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory dish before the scientists destroyed the embryos to harvest their stem cells. In Minnesota last year researchers at the Mayo Clinic created pigs with human blood flowing through their bodies. And at Stanford University in California an experiment might be done later this year to create mice with human brains. Scientists feel that, the more humanlike the animal, the better research model it makes for testing drugs or possibly growing "spare parts," such as livers, to transplant into humans. Watching how human cells mature and interact in a living creature may also lead to the discoveries of new medical treatments. But creating human-animal chimeras—named after a monster in Greek mythology that had a lion's head, goat's body, and serpent's tail—has raised troubling questions: What new subhuman combination should be produced and for what purpose? At what point would it be considered human? And what rights, if any, should it have? There are currently no U.S. federal laws that address these issues. Ethical Guidelines The National Academy of Sciences, which advises the U.S. government, has been studying the issue. In March it plans to present voluntary ethical guidelines for researchers. A chimera is a mixture of two or more species in one body. Not all are considered troubling, though. For example, faulty human heart valves are routinely replaced with ones taken from cows and pigs. The surgery—which makes the recipient a human-animal chimera—is widely accepted. And for years scientists have added human genes to bacteria and farm animals. What's caused the uproar is the mixing of human stem cells with embryonic animals to create new species. Biotechnology activist Jeremy Rifkin is opposed to crossing species boundaries, because he believes animals have the right to exist without being tampered with or crossed with another species. He concedes that these studies would lead to some medical breakthroughs. Still, they should not be done. "There are other ways to advance medicine and human health besides going out into the strange, brave new world of chimeric animals," Rifkin said, adding that sophisticated computer models can substitute for experimentation on live animals. "One doesn't have to be religious or into animal rights to think this doesn't make sense," he continued. "It's the scientists who want to do this. They've now gone over the edge into the pathological domain." David Magnus, director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University, believes the real worry is whether or not chimeras will be put to uses that are problematic, risky, or dangerous. Human Born to Mice Parents? For example, an experiment that would raise concerns, he said, is genetically engineering mice to produce human sperm and eggs, then doing in vitro fertilization to produce a child whose parents are a pair of mice. "Most people would find that problematic," Magnus said, "but those uses are bizarre and not, to the best of my knowledge, anything that anybody is remotely contemplating. Most uses of chimeras are actually much more relevant to practical concerns." Last year Canada passed the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, which bans chimeras. Specifically, it prohibits transferring a nonhuman cell into a human embryo and putting human cells into a nonhuman embryo. Cynthia Cohen is a member of Canada's Stem Cell Oversight Committee, which oversees research protocols to ensure they are in accordance with the new guidelines. She believes a ban should also be put into place in the U.S. Creating chimeras, she said, by mixing human and animal gametes (sperms and eggs) or transferring reproductive cells, diminishes human dignity. "It would deny that there is something distinctive and valuable about human beings that ought to be honored and protected," said Cohen, who is also the senior research fellow at Georgetown University's Kennedy Institute of Ethics in Washington, D.C. But, she noted, the wording on such a ban needs to be developed carefully. It shouldn't outlaw ethical and legitimate experiments—such as transferring a limited number of adult human stem cells into animal embryos in order to learn how they proliferate and grow during the prenatal period. Irv Weissman, director of Stanford University's Institute of Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine in California, is against a ban in the United States. "Anybody who puts their own moral guidance in the way of this biomedical science, where they want to impose their will—not just be part of an argument—if that leads to a ban or moratorium. … they are stopping research that would save human lives," he said. Mice With Human Brains Weissman has already created mice with brains that are about one percent human. Later this year he may conduct another experiment where the mice have 100 percent human brains. This would be done, he said, by injecting human neurons into the brains of embryonic mice. Before being born, the mice would be killed and dissected to see if the architecture of a human brain had formed. If it did, he'd look for traces of human cognitive behavior. Weissman said he's not a mad scientist trying to create a human in an animal body. He hopes the experiment leads to a better understanding of how the brain works, which would be useful in treating diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. The test has not yet begun. Weissman is waiting to read the National Academy's report, due out in March. William Cheshire, associate professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic's Jacksonville, Florida, branch, feels that combining human and animal neurons is problematic. "This is unexplored biologic territory," he said. "Whatever moral threshold of human neural development we might choose to set as the limit for such an experiment, there would be a considerable risk of exceeding that limit before it could be recognized." Cheshire supports research that combines human and animal cells to study cellular function. As an undergraduate he participated in research that fused human and mouse cells. But where he draws the ethical line is on research that would destroy a human embryo to obtain cells, or research that would create an organism that is partly human and partly animal. "We must be cautious not to violate the integrity of humanity or of animal life over which we have a stewardship responsibility," said Cheshire, a member of Christian Medical and Dental Associations. "Research projects that create human-animal chimeras risk disturbing fragile ecosystems, endanger health, and affront species integrity." ------------------------------- Shit is getting real crazy real quick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 28, 2005 Share Posted January 28, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villain Posted January 28, 2005 Share Posted January 28, 2005 It's a crazy mixed up world, it's a doggy dog world.... Sheesh... how long before we are battling waves of clones and mutant freeks? Crazy crazy.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ledzep Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 that is real fucked up. A kid with mice parents? wierd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overtime Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 how does that even work,.....what the hell.....mice kids with human parents.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mental invalid Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 reminds me the simpsons episode Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mental invalid Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 Originally posted by El Mamerro@Jan 28 2005, 11:33 PM Shit is getting real crazy real quick. Quoted post dood, my thoughts exactly...what the hell is this place gonna look like in 100 years... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ckit Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 strange i just did a essay on this topic. kids with mice parents would just be weird. not to mention how much the other kids would make fun of them. "son i got something to tell you, thats your mom in the cage over there." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
effyoo Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 Originally posted by mental invalid@Jan 28 2005, 07:25 PM what the hell is this place gonna look like in 100 years... Quoted post like an episode of futurama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casekonly Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 imagine a mouse with human cognitive resources...they're already pretty crafty.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BROWNer Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 science is out of control. i mean that in two ways.. the literal way(and i realize that it has been an amazingly beneficial thing, but i also recognize it's troubling aura and monumental fuck ups) and its mind blowing frontiers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casekonly Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 i think possibly too many sci-fi movies have corrupted our views on this subject matter. there most likely won't be half-lion half human people walking around, and none of that other jazz. mice with human brains would be fucking awesome...keep in mind that they couldn't speak...vocal cord limitations, etc...but they could possibly develop really good logic skills...not that they don't already have some sharp little minds... anyhow, my point being: don't let the movies and television fuck your views on this. it's alot of talk. they do that when something new is discovered. think of scientists as pot smoking hippies sitting in a room saying 'what if this' and 'what if that' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BROWNer Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 yea, but i don't think the ethical concerns are movies fucking with peoples heads, science is headed in some mindblowing directions while we are still coming to terms with the ramifications of it's past and present. i mean, the 'troubling questions' in the first part of that article are troubling in themselves.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Æ° Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 God damn assholes fucking with my image leeching... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CACashRefund Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poop Man Bob Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 Will this eventually lead to centaur porn? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poop Man Bob Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 Nevermind, found some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fermentor666 Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 ^^ http://www.boytaur.com --- FINALLY, anime freaks and furrys will be able to have their dreams of fucking a girl with bunny/cat ears or the thing from Starfox come true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
!@#$% Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 good article.. science has always been "out of control" that would be like controlling people's minds.. there isn't going to be any stopping the crazy ideas that are going to come out of some peopl's heads. somewhere, it'll be legal, or sanctioned, or researched. governments have been trying to put a lid on science for centuries. there was probably a huge uproar when the atom was first split, i am pretty sure people were worried about provoking some massive atmosphere destroying chain reaction.. we are now starting wars trying to keep this technology under control. as far as all this crazy biology, i don't really know what to make of it. there are a lot of complicated ethical questions, but i think it's probably going tobecome amoot point, because someone somewhere is going to be able to try ..whatever they want. the united states might eventually be a lousy place for science though, if the government steps in to regulate things it does not undestand. after all, i clone human genes, and it leads to a lot of valuable information. i wonder if that research would ever be in jeopardy..if so, that would be the end of my job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casekonly Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 good point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theodore Huxtable Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Quickwood Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 awesome, they should make something actually useful instead of all that other crap, like a mouse that shits out delicious beer at a high rate, that i would buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casekonly Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 brilliant arcel, why stop at a mouse that poops beer? ...how about a horse that poops pharmies? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Quickwood Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 fuck yeah, i'm about to run out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casekonly Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 dude, we have to have symbols clone us some supermodels.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ledzep Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 A cow that poops lobster. I love lobster :yum: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GnomeToys Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imported_YEAHMANWORD Posted January 31, 2005 Share Posted January 31, 2005 Originally posted by El Mamerro@Jan 28 2005, 06:33 PM Shit got real.................real quick. Quoted post Me and my boys' favorite saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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