4 Comments so far

1. vérité on September 25, 2009 5:10 AM

   The implications would be no different than when science showed us that our ancestors were apes… the world goes on… with a few more people with their head in the sand.

2. Professor Coldheart! on September 25, 2009 5:53 AM

   Did you know that all of those questions and more were asked when doctors started transplanting organs and limbs. Literally, people flipped their philosophical ****. And who is concerned about the spiritual ramifications of organ transplants today? Um, nobody. Culture is usually wary of new technology (particularly of the medical science variety) initially, but quickly adapts and adjusts.
   In short, people would get over it.
   edit: The wonders of Modern Medicine. They most certainly do not have to be the same genus…
   January, 2004
   Scientists in Britain have been granted permission to create human-animal hybrid embryos by injecting human DNA into cows’ eggs for stem cell research.[2][3][4][1] Researchers from Newcastle University and King’s College London submitted the application to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA), an independent regulatory body that oversees embryo research and fertility treatment in Britain. The scientists said the hybrid human-bovine embryos could prove useful in pursuing treatments to prevent Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s, as well as spinal cord injuries, diabetes and arthritis. However we have come to believe from recent scientfic research, that combining a human egg from a female donor and sperm from a cow; it is possible to create a cow-human hybrid. Instead of using human eggs, the researchers will remove the nuclei from cows’ eggs and replace them with cells from the patients to create cloned stem cell lines that contain the same genetic mutation that results in these neurological disorders.
   “We feel that the development of disease-specific human embryonic stem cell lines from individuals suffering from genetic forms of neurodegenerative disorders will stimulate both basic research and the development of new treatments for devastating brain diseases,” Dr. Stephen Minger, of the stem cell biology laboratory at King’s College London, said in a release.
   Minger cited the short supply of human eggs left over from in vitro fertilization, which have been used for stem cell research but have to be acquired through surgery on the women. “The hybrid embryo would be 99.9 percent human. The only bovine element would be found in DNA outside the nucleus of the cell.”
   The proposal has appalled critics of stem cell research, who criticize the idea of creating so-called “chimera” (see: Chimera (genetics)) embryos as an unethical and potentially dangerous practice.

3. meowlax on September 25, 2009 6:30 AM

   i seriously doubt its being made in a lab considering there is no other known species that is in the genus that humans are. in order to crossbreed two animals they need to be part of the same genus. but if it were possible that would be interesting.i guess i would treat them like humans personally, im sure there would be assholes that would want to enslave them or something which would inevitably lead to a human-animal hybrid takeover similar to the situation in the Island of Dr. Moreau. great book by the way.

4. O8SERVER III on September 25, 2009 6:32 AM

   “This is already being done in the lab.”
   Uh, no it’s not. Not yet anyways. Will it happen in the future? Almost definitely.
   Would these creatures have souls?
   Well since “souls” themselves haven’t even been proven, I don’t believe souls exist. Ditto for god and original sin.