Planet of the Apes--Coming soon???

[fedoralover]

I just read an article in the paper today that said scientists have now created pigs with human blood running through their veins and sheep with livers and hearts that are mostly human. The next step some are talking about would be to fuse a human and chimpanzee embyro, a feat researchers say is feasible since Chimps share 98% of the human genome. This would create what some are already calling a "Humanzee". The idea of course is to be able have organs available for transplant that would not be rejected by the human body. Noble cause I suppose but many are wondering if this were to happen, how would the humanity or lack of it be determined in this hybrid creature of mans making?

What's everyone else's take on this?

fedoralover

 

[ITG]

Well, since you asked...I think the scientists are messing with nature way too much. If Nature had wanted pigs to have human blood then he would have already done that. This sounds like forced evolution; okay maybe evolution isn't right word. Forced mutation I guess would be more adequate.

 

[IndianaGuybrush]

To be fair ITG, if nature had wanted people to fly it would have given them wings. But I agree with you in principle. I think genetically engineering an animal for organ harvesting is downright barbaric, especially when the animal is going to be a hybrid of two very intelligent animals, humans and chimps. I'd protest the use of chimps for organ harvesting, so a chimp human hybrid to me is out of the question. However, this brings up a whole other slew of problems. For instance, chimps have been used in medical testing for decades, and they usually die. Is this any better or worse than growing them for the expressed purpose of using their organs? I guess I just feel wrong about it. I reckon if a loved one were dying and in need of a transplant I'd feel different.

 

[binkmeisterRick]

I think what they're really aiming for is a pig/bird hybrid. That way, when they ask their spouses if they can buy another hat, and the spouse replies, "When pigs fly," they can point them to the window and say, "LOOK!"

bink

 

[Fuente]

Chimp Transplanted Organs??

Is that a banana in your pocket? Or are you just happy to see me?

Will be an everyday expression

Rich :cool2:

 

[jamespowers]

I suppose this subject would give a bioethicist fits but it makes me uncomfortable too. When you introduce hybrid humanesque creatures to the world, it sort of defines human life down. This means that it becomes acceptable to kill an animal to harvest its organs but not just an animal but a partially human animal. That is just one step from going into a prison and liberating a kidney from a prisoner or from a person who is brain dead without their consent. It defines human life and its precious nature down to that of killing a cow for food. I don't think I want to go down that road.
This reminds me of a Tales from the Darkside or Outer Limits episode where a group of people get trapped on a space ship from the future. They return to earth several hundred years later to find no human and little animal life left. They wonder what happened until they happen upon a graveyard that tells the whole story on a plaque. Mankind had sterilized itself accidentally with genetic alteration. The camera ends the episode focusing in on a skeleton of a man with wings! Fiction yes but I really wonder where science may take us if it is allowed to go unfettered.

Regards to all,

J

 

[jamespowers]

That Zira was bootylicious.

Does the word desperate come into your lexicon? Eww!

Regards to all,

J

 

[SappySwami]

A year or so ago I saw something on like, the Discovery channel, about a goat they... somehow messed with, so it lactated spider web fluid. And the image of spider goats dropping from the ceiling has never left this poor arachniphobe.

Even without fusing humans with chimps or whatever, some scientists want to classify chimps as Homo troglydite already. A teacher of mine had a story of a man who used to work with chimps at a zoo, and went back to visit after the zoo was taken over by a pharmaceutical company. And recognizing one of chimps, he asked to have it's arms untied (it was stapped into a chair, so they could inject it with AIDs or something horrendous) and the chimp signed to the man, asking why it had been left there, and asking what it had done wrong.

To me, that would be like testing on a todoller. The idea of a human/chimpanzee or some such thing is horrific.