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Are You a Man or a Mouse? (Chimeric experimentation produces Human-Animal Hybrids)
Guardian Unlimited ^ | 03/15/05 | Jeremy Rifkin

Posted on 03/15/2005 10:00:29 AM PST by mojito

What happens when you cross a human and a mouse? Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke but, in fact, it's a serious experiment recently carried out by a team headed by a distinguished molecular biologist, Irving Weissman, at Stanford University. Scientists injected human brain cells into mouse foetuses, creating a strain of mice that were approximately 1% human. Weissman is considering a follow-up that would produce mice whose brains are 100% human.

What if the mice escaped the lab and began to proliferate? What might be the ecological consequences of mice who think like human beings, let loose in nature? Weissman says that he would keep a tight rein on the mice, and if they showed any signs of humanness he would kill them. Hardly reassuring.

Experiments like the one that produced a partially humanised mouse stretch the limits of human tinkering with nature to the realm of the pathological.

The new research field at the cutting edge of the biotech revolution is called chimeric experimentation. Researchers around the world are combining human and animal cells and creating chimeric creatures that are part-human, part-animal.

The first chimeric experiment occurred many years ago when scientists in Edinburgh fused a sheep and goat embryo - two unrelated animal species that are incapable of mating and producing a hybrid offspring. The resulting creature, called a geep, was born with the head of a goat and the body of a sheep.

Now, scientists have their sights trained on breaking the final taboo in the natural world - crossing humans and animals to create new human-animal hybrids. Already, aside from the humanised mouse, scientists have created pigs with human blood and sheep with livers and hearts that are mostly human.

The experiments are designed to advance medical research. Indeed, a growing number of genetic engineers argue that human-animal hybrids will usher in a golden era of medicine. Researchers say that the more humanised they can make research animals, the better able they will be to model the progression of human diseases, test new drugs, and harvest tissues and organs for transplantation. What they fail to mention is that there are equally promising and less invasive alternatives to these bizarre experiments, including computer modeling, in vitro tissue culture, nanotechnology, and prostheses to substitute for human tissue and organs.

Some researchers are speculating about human-chimpanzee chimeras - creating a humanzee. This would be the ideal laboratory research animal because chimpanzees are so closely related to us. Chimps share 98% of the human genome, and a fully mature chimp has the equivalent mental abilities and consciousness of a four-year-old human.

Fusing a human and chimpanzee embryo - which researchers say is feasible - could produce a creature so human that questions regarding its moral and legal status would throw 4,000 years of ethics into chaos. Would such a creature enjoy human rights? Would it have to pass some kind of "humanness" test to win its freedom? Would it be forced into doing menial labour or be used to perform dangerous activities?

The possibilities are mind-boggling. For example, what if human stem cells - the primordial cells that turn into the body's 200 or so cell types - were to be injected into an animal embryo and spread throughout the animal's body into every organ? Some human cells could migrate to the testes and ovaries where they could grow into human sperm and eggs. If two of the chimeric mice were to mate, they could potentially conceive a human embryo. If the human embryo were to be removed and implanted in a human womb, the resulting human baby's biological parents would have been mice.

Please understand that none of this is science fiction. The National Academy of Sciences, America's most august scientific body, is expected to issue guidelines for chimeric research some time next month, anticipating a flurry of new experiments in the burgeoning field of human-animal chimeric experimentation.

Bioethicists are already clearing the moral path for human-animal chimeric experiments, arguing that once society gets past the revulsion factor, the prospect of new, partially human creatures has much to offer the human race. And, of course, this is exactly the kind of reasoning that has been put forth to justify what is fast becoming a journey into a brave new world in which all of nature can be ruthlessly manipulated. But now, with human-animal chimeric experiments, we risk even undermining our own species' biological integrity in the name of human progress.

With chimeric technology, scientists have the power to rewrite the evolutionary saga - to sprinkle parts of our species into the rest of the animal kingdom as well as fuse parts of other species with our own genome and even to create new human sub-species and super-species. Are we on the cusp of a biological renaissance, or sowing the seeds of our destruction?


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: bioengineering; bioethics; chimeras; cloning; ethics; stanford
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To: mojito

"What happens when you cross a human and a mouse? "

They tend to vote democRATS.... :o)


61 posted on 03/15/2005 11:44:59 AM PST by traumer
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To: Twinkie; briansb; MAK1179
"It makes you wonder when God is going to pull the plug on this nonsense."

You mean like last time this happened?

62 posted on 03/15/2005 11:56:38 AM PST by Lloyd227 (American Forces armed with what? Spit balls?)
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To: orionblamblam

1. You think that that is somehow more acceptable than what He forbade?

2. As far as I know, all domestic dogs are the same species. As far as hybrid cattle under the present covenant, see 3 below.

3. Granted, we are not Israelites. We are not bound by the old law. But sometimes I wonder whether following some of the old laws wouldn't make the world a better place.


63 posted on 03/15/2005 11:58:30 AM PST by TwoWolves (The only kind of control the liberals don't want is self control.)
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To: TwoWolves

1: No difference, actually.
2: All cattle that can successfully interbreed are the same species, as well. Breeding different kinds of beef critter does not lead to new species in short time spans.
3: I have no such doubts. Stoning people to death for not following objectively silly laws would *not* make the world better.


64 posted on 03/15/2005 12:01:05 PM PST by orionblamblam
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To: mojito
Thanks, mojito, for posting this article.

Are you a man or a mouse?

Give me some cheese, and maybe I'll tell you.

65 posted on 03/15/2005 12:05:50 PM PST by UCANSEE2
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To: orionblamblam
Probably the moment the superstitius take over and stop all science. At that point, humanity would cease to have a future anyay, so you might as well cancel the experiment.

Humanity has no future, science or not. Even if science created a way to expand through the entire cosmos, we'll die eventually along with the universe. Once one gets that through their head they'll understand that this idea of scientific progress is a pipe dream. Scientific knowledge is a noble aspiration to have, but not at the expense of the dignity of humans and other animals.

I fail to see much use for these experiments that can't be done through other simpler methods. It's a case of scientists wanting to do something simply because they can.

Sheesh. I'm sure there were people just as aghast at the idea of heart transplants, blood transfusions, vaccinations...

There were also scientists that thought Forced sterilization was the wave of the future... see I can tear down straw men too.
66 posted on 03/15/2005 12:08:30 PM PST by DarkSavant
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To: GovernmentShrinker

I think you forgot the HTML sarcasm tags on your post.


67 posted on 03/15/2005 12:09:00 PM PST by animoveritas (Dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.)
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To: DarkSavant

> Humanity has no future, science or not.

Incorrect. With science, at the *lest* we've got billions of years. Without it... nothing much matters, as we'll be nothing more than semi-smart animals.

> I fail to see much use for these experiments that can't be done through other simpler methods.

"Simpler means" in this case being experiments directly upon humans, as opposed to upon mice. I prefer experiments upon mice.

> There were also scientists that thought Forced sterilization was the wave of the future

A very small number (far more politicians and theologians thought so than scientists), and pretty much laughed at... just as those who are horrified by some interesting but ethically-uninteresting experiemnts on critters should be laughed at.


68 posted on 03/15/2005 12:13:33 PM PST by orionblamblam
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To: GovernmentShrinker
It will force us to reexamine our colossal arrogance in imagining that we are utterly different from, and inherently far above "animals". Not a bad thing IMO. Facing the truth is always healthy.

We're rational and they're not? Seems like a pretty significant difference to me.

69 posted on 03/15/2005 12:21:19 PM PST by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
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To: sportutegrl
I keep thinking of "The Fly", (the original): Help Meeee, Help Meeeeee.

Great movie with a classic ending. Much creepier than the remake.

70 posted on 03/15/2005 12:23:54 PM PST by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
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To: orionblamblam

People were not stoned to death for FOLLOWING the laws. And I hardly think that laws against murder, rape, and kidnapping are silly.

Perhaps you think that stoning somebody to death for sodomy, bestiality, or adultery is silly. If so, just remember that God doesn't hand down the death penalty for nothing. Obviously, He thought that there was something seriously wrong about those acts.


71 posted on 03/15/2005 12:25:17 PM PST by TwoWolves (The only kind of control the liberals don't want is self control.)
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To: orionblamblam
2: All cattle that can successfully interbreed are the same species, as well.

Aren't all animals in the process of evolving? Shouldn't each animal be its own species? The notion of species, nature or essence seems very (gasp) medieval to me...

72 posted on 03/15/2005 12:27:09 PM PST by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
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To: Muleteam1

What do you get when you cross a rat and a human?

A liberal?


73 posted on 03/15/2005 12:33:15 PM PST by dog breath
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To: TwoWolves

Nice diversionary tactic. You knwo full well that many of the stone-worthy OT laws are just plain silly and evil.


21:15 And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.
21:16 And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
21:17 And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

20:9 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.
20:10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
20:11 And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
20:12 And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them.
20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
20:14 And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.
20:15 And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.
20:16 And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

13:6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;
13:7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;
13:8 Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:
13:9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
13:10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

17:3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
17:4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:
17:5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
17:6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.
17:7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.

17:12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.

21:18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:
21:19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;
21:20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.
21:21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

22:13 If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her,...
22:20 But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:
22:21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.

And so on. The OT is jam-packed with death sentences for all sorts of things... including being the *victim*.


74 posted on 03/15/2005 12:48:35 PM PST by orionblamblam
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To: Aquinasfan

> Aren't all animals in the process of evolving?

Nope. All *species* are. *You* will never evolve. Your offspring will. Maybe.

> Shouldn't each animal be its own species?

Give it a shot. Next time you nail your missus, turn yourself over to the authorities for an immediate stoning.


75 posted on 03/15/2005 12:53:21 PM PST by orionblamblam ("You're the poster boy for what ID would turn out if it were taught in our schools." VadeRetro)
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To: stuartcr

Then you could write a bestselling book entitled...

"Conversations with Dog"!

(Sorry, couldn't resist!)


76 posted on 03/15/2005 12:54:03 PM PST by GeorgiaYankee (Proud citizen of Jesusland!)
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To: Calpernia; Velveeta; DAVEY CROCKETT; Donna Lee Nardo; WestCoastGal; SandRat; TexasCowboy; ...

The experiment will be done "cause they can do it".

Killing is only wrong on the battle field, not in abortion clinics, labs where humans are created or old folks homes.

Our world has tilted, the lucky will all fall off of it now.


77 posted on 03/15/2005 12:54:25 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (The enemy within, will be found in the "Communist Manifesto 1963", you are living it today.)
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To: TwoWolves
>>As far as I know, all domestic dogs are the same species.<<

Maybe not. Although all domestic dogs are conveniently classified taxonomically as the same species, e.g., Canis familiaris, there was a theory that some modern dogs came from wolves and some were bred from foxes. Remembering my taxonomy, this would place dogs from wolves and dogs from foxes into the same family classification (Canidae) but not the same genera and certainly not the same species. Just a bit of trivia from an old biologist.

Muleteam1

78 posted on 03/15/2005 1:01:09 PM PST by Muleteam1
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To: GeorgiaYankee

excellent...


79 posted on 03/15/2005 1:03:03 PM PST by stuartcr
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To: mojito
scientists have created pigs with human blood

So that's where Hillary came from! I knew it!

80 posted on 03/15/2005 1:05:51 PM PST by neutrino (Globalization “is the economic treason that dare not speak its name.” (173))
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