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Isaiah
Skeptic Friend
USA
83 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 09:49:05
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Maryann Mott
National Geographic News
January 25, 2005
quote:
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.
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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.
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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.
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For Real Things I Know - http://solomonj.blogspot.com
"My point is, that you cannot use lack of evidence for one possibility as proof for another." - Dude
“I would rather delude myself with comforting fantasies than face a cold reality” - Isaiah, altered from astropin |
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Plyss
Skeptic Friend
Netherlands
231 Posts |
 Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:28:24 [Permalink]
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quote:
"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.
(Emphasis mine)
...Right...
quote:
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.
Less problematic, risky and dangerous then, say, nerve-gasses?
I don't know, i just don't see the problems in this whole thing. I don't believe there's anything "distinctive and valuable" to homo sapiens other then the distinctiveness and value we as a society give to it.
It might actually spark some interesting debates on what it means to be human. I'd love to see some religious nuts arguing against equal rights for mice-man because they don't have souls. Or some environmentalist fundy ranting about the "unnaturalness" of it all right before stepping into his automobile and driving off to go home and cook a veggie-burger on his induction-heater that's powered by the solar panels on his roof. Now that's entertaining.
I don't think this sort of thing will be considered problematic, risky, or dangerous for very long. Probably some people will worry about it, but then they'll flip on their TVs and watch the latest stupid reality show or sit-com and they'll just forget about the whole thing. Hmm, come to think of it, maybe i shouldn't write posts when i'm in such a cynical mood. |
Miss Tick sniffed. 'You could say this piece of advice is pricesless', she said. 'Are you listening?'
'Yes' said Tiffany.
'Good now...If you trust in yourself.."
'Yes..?'
'..and believe in your dreams...'
'yes?'
'...and follow your star..' Miss Tick went on.
'Yes?'
'You'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy. Goodbye.' |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:47:31 [Permalink]
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Agree with Plyss, although I might not have some few years ago.
If nothing else, it shows that we are not as far removed from the natural world as we might think. Or hope.
Thanks, Isaiah.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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NubiWan
Skeptic Friend
USA
424 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 13:11:10 [Permalink]
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This is really interesting. Was the objective or profit, in making these 'chimeras' ever mentioned? Having resently seen the result of an apparent 'group death wish,' am coming to accept the notion that humanity's time on the stage is limited and drawing to a close. Leads me to wonder, "What will come forth, next?" What a joke to play on the next (?) player's evolutionists. There would be a clear and real evidence, of a deliberate intervention, {perhaps of a Divine nature..?}, in the DNA , uh, phylogeny. Although loosing favor now, there was a bit of speculation, suggesting it would come in the form of AI from our computers or more likely our computer directed factories.
edit for spelling *sigh* |
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| Edited by - NubiWan on 01/27/2005 13:20:09 |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 13:28:40 [Permalink]
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Wow. Interesting. I say go for it. Maybe we should quit worrying about what's at the bottom of the slippery slope until we're closer to it.
There might be some increased risk of future diseases that cross species' barriers, but that is true for lots of human activities like animal tissue transplants into humans and new roads through the rain forest. |
| Edited by - beskeptigal on 01/27/2005 13:30:53 |
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Rubicon95
Skeptic Friend
USA
220 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 13:51:04 [Permalink]
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You've got to be kidding me. This is Brave New World crap. Ford Ford. Make the sign of the T.
Better yet Dr. Moreau
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 14:26:51 [Permalink]
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quote:
There might be some increased risk of future diseases that cross species' barriers, but that is true for lots of human activities like animal tissue transplants into humans and new roads through the rain forest.
Don't forget the implications of the reverse. Many animals are not vulnerable to some of the worst pathogens that effect humans.
It's a very interesting area of inquiry.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 15:54:07 [Permalink]
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| Interesting... just like Dark Angel! |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26021 Posts |
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Boron10
Religion Moderator
USA
1266 Posts |
Posted - 01/31/2005 : 21:24:24 [Permalink]
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Dave, are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Besides, Dave, haven't you read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? It wouldn't make sense for mice to try to take over the world. They commissioned it's construction! |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2005 : 08:37:12 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Boron10
Dave, are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Besides, Dave, haven't you read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? It wouldn't make sense for mice to try to take over the world. They commissioned it's construction!
Of course!
The dolphins tried to warn us, but... |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26021 Posts |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2005 : 09:32:11 [Permalink]
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In the beginning, the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry, and has been widely regarded as a bad idea.
-- Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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