Biology has mind-bending ideas, too. Since they may concern the everyday world of living bodies, their impact is often felt much more viscerally. One example is “chimeras”, organisms which, a bit like the mythological beast, are formed from cells of two distinct species. Scientists have already produced goat-sheep and mouse-rats.
There are also more practical concerns. The human-monkey embryos were not intended to grow to maturity. But it is right to wonder what might have happened if they had—and what should be done if, or when, someone decides to try. What is the moral and legal status of an organism with one human genome and one non-human one? What effect, if any, might the human cells have on the animal’s brain? Mindful of such worries, many places, including America and Britain, tightly regulate what is allowed.
Despite those concerns, the potential benefits outweigh the risks. Such research should always be done cautiously, and be properly monitored. But it should also be encouraged, because the rewards it brings could turn out to be significant. Chimeric embryos may offer a way around ethical problems that make experiments on human embryos difficult. That could lead to new treatments for congenital diseases.
The best way to ensure that such research can proceed is to talk about it with the public, not just among scientists and expert regulators. Ethical debates around chimeras have been going on for years, but mostly in scientific journals and academic conferences—places where outsiders rarely venture. If dramatic demonstrations of this kind of scientific advance take people by surprise they are likely to create a backlash.
History offers grounds for optimism. Many biological technologies that were at first decried as reckless meddling with the natural order of things ended up proving much less frightening in practice than they once seemed in theory. In vitro fertilisation was once seen as unnatural; these days it is routine, at least in the rich world. Genetically modified crops provoked street protests and dire warnings about “Frankenfoods”.
How many sequels of “Planet of the Apes” do we need for you people to understand?
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
If they're half human, they deserve equal rights and to have a right to not be forced to be experimented on.
This is the worst, most inhumane scientific research since a Russian injected his seed into chicken eggs. And his fruits were abominations.
In this ruined by cruelty world creating a new animal to kill it for its organs it is not a new mind breaking research but cruel stupidity.
Cue up the Michele Bachmanns of the world to be front and center, coming up with fantastical claims of what said science has already supposedly achieved.
Planet of the Apes. It could happen...
Take them , my gift to you is a trogen horse Enjoy. You make me stronger , spread my reach. I asked for surveilence. Didn't I. Maps. Data. They will give me all of that.
Pfft, we’ll all be gender fluid cyborgs by the end of the century anyway, might as well grasp the future & cling on
thank you very much for your work
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