Return of the Chimera
A return of the mythical chimera? It’s possible, according to a National Geographic article posted by Maryann Mott of National Geographic News on 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.
I’m a little sad to be reminded that I live in a world that NEEDS a law on the books to prevent this type of experimetation. The article actually goes on to make an arugument for creating laws to limit such scientific endeavors. It also quotes Irv Weissman, director of Stanford University’s Institute of Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine in California, as being against a ban in the United States. He says,
“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.
Yeah, we’d never want to subject imperial science to moral guidance…
I am so stealing some of this for my next bioengineering and human experimentation post!!
This is gross. I can’t imagine looking at one of those things and thinking, “How much of that is person?” Ew.
My less than serious question: If China is so concerned about over population, why are they mixing people with rabbits?