About

Earl Aagaard’s opinions about everything that interests him. Og also enjoys gardening, travel, reading, woodbutchery, and lots of other stuff.

Monthly Archives

Join Og's Mailing List

OgBlog.net

THE “1% HUMAN” MOUSE…...

So, you thought it was just science fiction, right? I’m thinking of “The Fly”, and “The Island of Dr. Moreau”. Most of you probably remember a lot more than I do. But, it’s not just in the horror stories any more.

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.

Right now, we have a mouse with part of its brain made of human cells, and the next step is a mouse with a completely human brain. But the field has set its sights much “higher”(?) than this…..

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.

Surely they can’t do THAT….no one is THAT far along, you say?

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.

“Guidelines” from the National Academy!! I feel safer already….how about you? Of course…..there might be advantages…..chimeras of this sort would be immensely strong….. they could do a lot of really nasty tasks that us “real humans” don’t want to do….... But wait - wouldn’t that be unethical? We have LOTS of professional ethicists—they’re not going to allow this kind of thing, right?

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.

Well, at least we know what FINALLY got Jeremy Rifkin to see the danger. The indiscriminate killing of small humans in the womb didn’t do it…..refusing dialysis to old people while offering to buy them suicide pills in Oregon didn’t do it…..not even manufacturing human embryos to break up into pieces for the benefit of the rest of us did it…......but human/animal chimeras have gotten his attention. It’s kind of scary, but he’s ‘WAY ahead of some folks. And a lot of those folks are the ones who count. READ IT ALL HERE.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03/15 at 02:40 PM

Comments and reactions