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Louisiana Rep. Preps State Bill Banning Human-Animal Hybrids
mikeljnola writes with an excerpt from NOLA.com that says state senator Danny Martiny (R-Kenner) will introduce a bill to the Louisiana legislature on April 27 to "'make it illegal to "create or attempt to create a human-animal hybrid, ... transfer or attempt to transfer a human embryo into a non-human womb ... (or) transfer or attempt to transfer a non-human embryo into a human womb."' With budget cuts all around, our struggling state is concerned with the eminent danger of human-animal hybrids. The upside is that the odds of the Louisiana becoming the Bayous of Dr. Boudreaux are now even slimmer."
So much for ever getting a real catgirl :/
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Only bans the transfer of an embryo into a womb? Guess I can still have sex with my cow then. Hang tight, Betsy, I'macomin'!
They are everyone's problem.
FURSECUTION!
I recall an experiment involving a human-cow hybrid; specifically, human nuclear DNA and cow mitochondrial DNA. The embryo was allowed to grow to 16 cells before being destroyed, and there were a lot of cries about the ethics of such experiments.
Palm trees and 8
They're only delaying the inevitable takeover at the hooves of the Cow People.
Robotic Overlords were just a diversion.
the root cause of our societal problems is that there are too many manimals walking around.
we must rush to put a stop to this at once!
after that, the world will be fine. this is the last actual hard problem left to be solved.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
See article from 2 days ago.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
If you had sex with a human-animal hybrid, could you be prosecuted for bestiality? Of course *I* wouldn't have sex with a hybrid. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I think.
It may sound dumb, but....
Directly combining cells from two species is one thing, and this bill is going after that, but the term "hybrid" makes me nervous. A mouse with a single human gene is technically a hybrid. Are they going to outlaw transgenic lab animals, therefore? That would be a huge blow to science.
Gotta love the Catholic Church, the bastions of innovation and human progress that they are. Not.
So what if humans or animals want to run on 1/2 electricity. It could drastically cut down on methane gas emissions.
So it's good enough for cars, but not for us?
"I don't have to think. I only have to do it. The results are always perfect, but that's old news." - Meat Puppets
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I want my Monkey-Man!
are humans not animals?
What a retarded idea. Someone should let him know it doesn't work like that, and that we already have animals into which we have inserted human genes, and likely will be eating them soon. I guess he watched too much anime or something.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
As they say, "It's the thought that counts." In this case, the thought is "What can we pass that will have no significant effect on anything in the state other than making us look better to a certain portion of our electorate?" It's a safe way of soliciting votes.
Personally, I would much rather we do something productive, such as codifying right-arm signaling for right turns on bicycles, passing a "complete streets" bill, or repealing RS 32:197(C).
Clicking on the link, the first thing that caught my eye was a picture of a catholic priest. When are we going to stop allowing these people to mess around in our science and politics? Separate church and state already.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Kitlers! http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/cgi-bin/seigbest.pl
Today your sofa, tomorrow the world!
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Curses, my plan to create an army of furries in Louisiana in thwarted! Dastardly fiends!
I for one welcome our Human-cow overlords
Usually Louisiana and Alabama are on the cutting edge of scientific advancement.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Some scientist will take this off shore and you'll be hearing things like "Animal rights activists drove him out of the States. Got so bad you couldn't cage a rat without reading him his rights."
After all, what is the law?
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I live in New Orleans. from the article, this was filed "on behalf of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops". If you've never been here, Catholicism is huge in south Louisiana.
This bill has nothing to do with any sort of research or proposed research in the state. There are no biomedical companies here threatening to build mutant humans. Louisiana doesn't generally have the sort of biomedical research centers that would do work of that sort. We're happy if the Germans build a steel mill here.
This is just another one of those ideas based on a garbled sci-fi fear of Science, made by people who'd rather not have to learn anything before forming an opinion, and who have far too much access to lawmakers.
I have no doubt the law will pass, the religious community here will crow about it for a few days, and then absolutely nothing tangible will have changed. Except that a few hundred thousand more of my state tax dollars will have been spent on bullshit.
Ahem.. Aren't we supposed to ban government-religion hybrids?
Todos mis movimientos están friamente calculados
/me starts boxing up the Louisiana lab
No sig for you!!
...is that they're not worried about human-animal hybrids, they're worried about using non-human stem cells in humans or human stem cells in animals.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
What is their position on Atomic Monsters? With octagonal bodies that suck blood....
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
From TFA:
Anyone who is convicted of doing so could face up to 10 years in prison, could be fined up to $10,000 or both. Anyone who profits financially by such experimentation, the bill says, would face a civil fine of $1 million or twice the amount of the gross gain realized -- whichever is more.
Why the extra civil penalty based on profit? Is it "more wrong" to do it for money instead of academic interest?
[b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
My dreams of a race of pigmen, bred to be my slaves to do my evil biddings, have been dashed.
Damn you, Louisiana. Damn you to hell!
The ability to see into the ultraviolet spectrum would be great. Of course, seeing all the bodily fluid stains that people had THOUGHT they cleaned up might be a bit disgusting.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Gotta love the Catholic Church, the bastions of innovation and human progress that they are. Not.
Hi, Orleron, we need to talk. It's me, the 1990s. judging by that last sentence fragment negating the previous sentence to it, you were sentient during my reign on earth. Unfortunately, there's a court order demanding I keep all of my belongings out of other decades. Yeah, I've got Vanilla Ice in my garage and all copies of Armageddon in my living room.
Frankly, you need to stop with all my phrases. I'd issue a DMCA take down notice if I wasn't ordered to keep those also relegated to the 90s. As it turns out, these jokes aren't funny, Ace of Base is not good music and having your own GeoCities page doesn't make you cool.
If the other decades are reading this, I'm sorry for screwing everything up and it's in your hands now, 00s.
Dr Moreau begins moving his lab from Louisiana. "Not sure where I'll go just yet, perhaps an island somewhere away from these crazy laws"
As the day is fast approaching when we can create less-than-human intelligent creatures, it makes sense to be certain it is made illegal before anyone tries it. Might I remind you what history that very state has with beings once considered to be subhuman?
It is not silly for the legislature to be doing it during a recession, they're not out creating jobs, you know.
The latest Slashdot meme.
...then only the criminals will have human-animal hybrids.
Four fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still. -C. Coolidge
Listen to the man, he does more in 1 hour than most politicians do in 10 lifetimes!
With the way people in this country have become so litigous, I don't blame them for getting something on the books early regarding this issue, since I'd rather not have people conducting their own hybrid experiments in MY town, and Having to fight off ManBearPig (again).
At least this is better than some of the random blue laws on the books that you see, especially in some Southern and Mid-Western states. Things like, It is illegal to ride your Donkey down a state maintained road unless traveling at the proper speed limit
Go donkey Go!
"This is the value of a summer spent and a winter earned"
...House Bill 517 that would protect from being fired or demoted people who refuse to participate in any health care practice that violates their conscience...
Now way! You serve everybody without prejudice. If you can't/won't, then find another line of work. I don't want witch doctors in the operating room. I can go to the mountains for that.
Todos mis movimientos están friamente calculados
I want my monkey-humans!
I am not a female, but I seem to notice that women do seem to be pretty able to handle their workforce chores quite well during the gestation period. It's the time they need after the little squirt comes out that makes them need to take a few extra days off.
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
I guess what's really sad is that creating legislation like this will likely get him *more* votes in LA. We just need to make sure there is an exemption for creating monkeys with four asses.
Gives it a whole new meaning. Well, not that new.
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
If you call them "Crawdaddy" they taste bigger when you eat them!
Oh, and don't suck the heads, they got tiny little brains up there, but plenty of sex organs and fat!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Unless this prohibits ALL the numerous creative means of achieving genetic "intermingling", this bill is pretty much useless except to satisfy one particular faction's pseudo-moral obsession.
a technique for creating blood via stem cell that may use genes from bacteria could save millions of lives but sorry LA it's illegal in your state!
Is Mutant Atomic Supermen, so I'm okay with the rest.
Sig this!
That sheep is a liar!
I love the internet! It allows people to display their complete lack of intelligence for the whole world to see. If you only knew how the Catholic Church has advanced scientific understandings.
Oh! That's right... I went there!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
...is Homo sapiens not an animal?
Gotta love the Catholic Church, the bastions of innovation and human progress that they are. Not.
WTF does the Catholic Church have to do with this? Yes, the bill was suggested by a Catholic bishop, but given that the Catholic Church accepts Evolution and the Protestant faiths do not, I know which faith I'd rather have influencing law makers.
This law is at least based on ethics, as opposed to Protestant laws which are made to try and force their beliefs onto everyone. (Like, say, Prohibition, a law designed explicitly to attack Catholic Irish. Or any of the more recent laws demanding the teaching of "intelligent design.")
My point is that while the Catholic Church does do some anti-science things, they can't hold a candle to the anti-science that comes from Protestants. Calling them out and not calling out the even more anti-science Protestants simply isn't fair. After all, if the Protestants had their way, stem cell research would be banned completely.
Dude. The law is quite obviously made to protect the animal loving residents of the state from financial responsibility over potential human-sheep crosses that may follow a fun night of whiskey and solitude. The representative is trying to account for a genetically advanced future where accidental fusion of redneck sperm and sheep egg might occur and be stable.
And so is a person who gets a catgut suture. Will this law make surgery illegal?
In the DNA of other species could be nice things to acquire, but i dont think we are ready for that kind of things yet.
But what about the other direction? You can make animals (cows?) to produce human organs for transplant. That would be a bit better than taking them from humans or letting the patient die.
Of course, you can also start your own no-human-killed factory of soylent green.
Ever been to Mardi Gras? The human-animal hybrid ship sailed long, long ago.
1 in 4 Maine children in struggle with hunger.
my Republican elephant and Democratic donkey hybrids...
"The Bayous of Dr. Boudreaux", my God that's funny. Give whoever first coined that phrase a cookie!
A miserable little pile of secrets.
Back during the depression here in Canada our government passed a law stating if your head were smaller than a common baseball you were exempt from all laws. It's one of those tactics governments use during difficult economic times. There's some thought that it helps drives innovation. In the case of Louisiana, it's likely they want to boost the robotics industry. No human animal hybrids means science will have to focus on cyborgs. In the case of the Canadian baseball head law, they were trying to reduce the number of violent hat thefts; which were quite common during the depression.
I have nothing compelling to say
So you're telling me there's a chance we will never see another goatse again? For the love of Mike, thank you!
For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.
without using the term "human"
human-animal hybrids have become a real problem, ya know.
Bart: How would I go about creating a half-man, half-monkey-type creature?
Ms.K: I'm sorry, that would be playing God.
Bart: God shmod! I want my monkey-man!
I am not a female, but I seem to notice that women do seem to be pretty able to handle their workforce chores quite well during the gestation period. It's the time they need after the little squirt comes out that makes them need to take a few extra days off.
As my wife is currently near 7 months and still working. I'll point out some of the observations of my wife:
1. She feels forgetful. Enough to notice that there is a difference.
2. She has to keep her feet elevated (not much of an issue)
3. She had to get a different vehicle as she was getting too close to the wheel. (Nissan Murano with adjustable pedals helped a lot)
4. Distractions, and there is a lot of extra work to do. Even though I pretty much take care of everything at home now, there are still things that take up time.
Then comes the risk of being ordered home from work. My mother was sent home a month early when I was born. Then if a C-section is required, you can expect to not return up to 12 weeks from the birth.
It's not so much of a hurt on your career, but it basically takes a 6 month chunk out of time where you could be performing (impressing the boss).
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
from the dating services popular in the South?
I'm not a human, but I play one on T.V.
blame the church if you like but the real problem here is a government powerful enough to regulate every aspect of our lives.
I thought I was reading the Onion.
Are we still allowed to make half man, half animal, half animal hybrids?
Because if not, then this time I really am finally moving to Canada...
Homo: any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage
It's not just pregnant women. The bottom line is that; Employers hate children. This is a real problem in Western society.
May the Maths Be with you!
A bill to ban SATAN.
C'mon, people, on the old slashdot this would have been in the first ten comments!
Bart: How would I go about creating a half-man, half-monkey-type creature?
Ms.Krabapple: I'm sorry, that would be playing God.
Bart: God shmod! I want my monkey-man!
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
Louisiana is a majority baptist area. If you're going to bash Christian sects, at least have the decency to pick the right one!
HAL.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
I wouldn't think a catgut suture makes someone a hybrid. It would be like saying, "Wearing a leather coat makes you part cow." That catgut is no more part of your body than that coat, other than the fact that it's used to hold your skin together (but, it subsequently dissolves, so it's not even permanent).
I really hope there's an obscure reference that's setting me up for a 'whoosh' here, because if you're serious, you should look into a few names:
...to name just a few. The first pair and their connection to the second name were probably the longest knowledge setback in scientific history. The Catholic church has always opposed any knowledge that would allow common people to think freely and question its dogma.
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
The Human Ecosystem, Posted 12/23/2008, Matthew Child; George Macfarlane
Genetic analysis shows that our gastrointestinal tracts are home to more than 100 000 billion (1014) individual micro-organisms of perhaps 36 000 different species. And more than 90% of the cells in our bodies are non-human.[1] These bacteria form a diverse and complex ecosystem with a total gene pool (microbiome) more than 100 times larger than the human genome -- in effect we are hybrid "superorganisms." The types and numbers of bacteria differ from the stomach to the distal colon, reflecting the changes in pH, concentration of oxygen, and availability of nutrients. Small numbers persist in the stomach (notably Helicobacter pylori, which causes ulcers) and the small intestine, but most of these organisms are found in the anaerobic environment of the large intestine ( Table ).
To see the full article you need some kind of login which I don't have, but SlashDot had a similar story a couple of days ago: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/15/0252219
So I think there's a lot of tough questions to ask before allowing legislation like this to pass. We can't even define "human" very well, and we already appear to be hybrids (mitochondrial DNA etc).
All we need now is a big parade of furries, kin, "recreational livestock farmers" and medical researchers to protest against such an evil bill.... *cough*, yeah...
I frankly don't see that what's so bad about hybrids, it's not like animals in the US have any rights whatsoever anyway, and any hybrid actually formed would likely get a better deal in life than most animals...
If it can be used to save/improve/whatever human (or other) life, then, surely that's a good thing...
Probably done by the same bunch of narrow-minded old religious interfering asshats who think abortion, stem cells and the teaching of science are the scourge of the earth.
There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face - Ben Williams
Humans are already animals, so would this mean that human to human mixing would be illegal? Jesting aside, this might be hard to legislate, as it would require a scientific description of exactly what genes are required to be human. While at first pass this might seem to be a no-brainer, it actually opens up some serious ethical concerns. If you get a child that has a genetic mutation that either has extra genetic material (or less) than the definition, that person could LEGALLY be considered not human. This is an enormous can of worms. What rights would a sentient non-human, who looks human, expect to have in society?
Are you sure you want Louisianans generating 3-times as many offspring?
I'm all for new ideas and everything, but I seriously hope you're joking. Having a baby is not just some process you have to get done or something that is "a thing to cross off my TODO list."
If a "hard-working professional" doesn't want to delay her career to have a child, then she should NOT be having a child. If someone is too busy with their work to have a child, then she (or he, as father's lives are going to change as well) is most definitely not going to have time to actually raise a child.
The thing a lot of people seem to forget is that the pregnancy is just 9 months. Raising a child is a lifetime (or at least 18 years...) of commitment, dedication, and of giving up A LOT of your own time.
You mean we can't create any Humanzees or ManBearPigs? I'm crushed.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
That would reduce the risk for the mother; I doubt it would reduce it for the child.
I couldn't disagree more. Machines have an excellent track record for accuracy, compared to humans. During the experimental stage, it might be dangerous for mother and child, but when the technology matures, it will be safer for both, and lots of people will be doing it. There will, of course, always be people who prefer the old fashioned way.
The one thing that would quickly decrease the risks of pregnancy to absolutely zero is an artificial womb!
Hooray! Somebody finally found something in this universe that has absolutely zero risk! And it involves babies and surgery!
Now I will have to move my lab to Mississippi!
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I think this excludes 90% of those we consider human. :)
ManBearPig?
---- "Logoff! That cookie shit makes me nervous!" - A. Soprano
So anyone who does not have superior intelligence, articulate speech or erect carriage is not human?
What you gave was a characterization, not a definition.
You know what else that list has in common?
All those names involved people who died more than a century ago.
The fact remains that the modern Catholic church is quite open to science.
As opposed to the modern Protestant church, which remains quite closed to science.
Of course, both statements are relative, but it's not fair to just pick on Catholics when Catholics are by far one of the most open faiths when it comes to science, especially compared to other larger faiths in the US.
Don't forget, the modern Catholic church supports evolution. The modern Protestant church continues to push for the teaching of "intelligent design".
against Cajuns?
In Greek myth Zeus had sex with cows, swans, humans etc, Seems to me Greek Gods love life (literally) in all its forms. Oh and his "activities" bore fruit many times...
- Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
There is a single modern Protestant church?
NO!
The last thing we are ever going to need is more people.
I'm against this bill, but we really should be looking at cutting down on our population, not the other direction!
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Humulin ("Human Insulin") is produced by a recombinant DNA process which transferred the gene for human insulin production into a variety of e. coli, and was approved by the FDA in 1982 (http://www.biology.iupui.edu/biocourses/n100/goodfor5.html). The bottom line is that we've been making human-animal hybrids for decades, they already treat some diseases and hold great promise in treating more, and legislation such as this only reinforces the image of Louisiana as a Luddite backwater.
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I mean, I'm pro-life, and yeah, mom's life is more valuable than the child. Mom can get pregnant again and has chores to do for Daddy, not to mention providing for the other children. If you had to make the terrible choice between mom and a child, I'd say the lose the child.
Now, when mom gets old, that role gets reversed. Like, once you retire, the kids become more important than you.
This is my sig.
Think of the Sheep!
For some reason, I see 'Louisiana', and I think 'swamp', and from there, we get to 'Swamp Thing'.
So who's going to protect us from the Human-Plant hybrids?
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
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While rational, your point does not coincide with the values of our society. So they won't be very receptive to those ideas
What do you mean? America is a society that really doesn't like children at all. It's only that Europeans and Japanese positively hate children that makes America seem child friendly.
Have you ever taken toddlers out with you and gotten a bunch of dirty looks from all the people? It's like, you shot someone. People should like to hear children laughing and stuff and instead everyone expects them to sit in silence in public places. What kind of a screwed up society is that!
Similarly, we have no problem blowing tons of money on old people, spending hundreds of billions on medicare and medicaid so grandma can get a new pacemaker on the public dime, but lets see what happens if you suggest that grandma just dies so that kids can get better schools.
This is my sig.
Fine, the modern Protestant churches continue to push for the teaching of "intelligent design".
Happy now?
Sure, there may be many little differences in beliefs, but when it comes to the refusal to accept science, they're all the same.
Seriously, remember this is Louisiana.
When they talk about creating human/animal hybrids, or implanting a human embryo in an animal's womb... you've seen the South Park episode about the elephant and the pig, right?
Just today, at lunch, myself & 3 co-workers were discussing how corrupt & worthless politicians from Louisiana are. Strange coincidence.
There is a war going on for your mind.
Just as ignorant as your earlier comment.
Perhaps Slashdot needs an option to post as "Anonymous Idiot".
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Louisiana happens to be known the world over for Mardi Gras, weeklong festival that brings tens of thousands to New Orleans every year. Seems baptists don't have as much cultural influence in Louisiana as Catholics do.
blog
...the government has been experimenting with pig-men since the 50's.
Gotta love the Catholic Church, the bastions of innovation and human progress that they are. Not.
Nice troll.
If anyone's interested here's the link to the National Catholic Bioethics Center:
http://www.ncbcenter.org/
Also, there's an interesting book called "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization" that you might find enlightening.
It's odd that this bill is coming from the deep south were Man/Sheep love is so common. Someone should explain to the senator that human to animal intercourse cannot result in a part man part animal embryo.
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Did anyone else notice the huge loophole in this law? It only outlaws human/animal hybrids, not human/plant hybrids. This law puts other states' superheroes and villians at a disadvantage, while still allowing their own Louisiana native Swamp Thing.
they're worried about using non-human stem cells in humans or human stem cells in animals.
Anybody who eats certain vegetables has used non-human stem cells.
I wonder if they consider bacteria animals, since the current source for insulin is bacteria/human hybrids. The previous porcine insulin had too many side effects.
Atlas stands on the earth and carries the celestial sphere on his shoulders.
If we could rent a cow to gestate a baby (or three) we could have more children sooner.
The world does not need "more children sooner".
Dammit, now you're making me agree with the fundigelicals. They may be afraid of the cow womb. I'm afraid of a massively increased birth rate.
I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
Of course employers hate children. They are a time drain on their employees. EMPLOYERS CARE ABOUT MAKING MONEY.
I have already applied for my patent on the Centaur. My initial plans are to sue old spice!
It seems they hate the people without children more. I have to subsidize health insurance for their large families (any plan I've seen just has a "family" option, regardless of the number of dependents) and I do not get nearly as much time off.
"Stay late to meet that deadline--oh sorry, I wish I could, but I have to pick up my kid from daycare".
If choosing between something that could save the lives of mothers or something that is promoted by religious extremists, which do you think this nation would choose? This is, after all, a Christian nation.
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Better safe than BAAAAAAaaaa....
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I'm sorry, but this island of dr. moreau crap is such ridiculousness that this state senator should be laughed out of the senate chamber.
Least of all, this was also strangely similar to the last episode of "Fringe" on FOX where an animal hybrid escapes and kills a bunch of people.
state senator Martiny is really just trying to ban the creation of furries.
They're using their grammar skills there.
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Princeton Wordnet
OK, so the summary already is a source of hilarity to me... "eminent danger"? Eminent means prominent, distinguished, or noteworthy. The correct phrase here is likely "imminent danger." Based on that, and the comments in TFA (most of which were riddled with similar typos and malapropisms, many of which were bemoaning the state of education in Louisiana, and some of which fell under both of the previous two categories), it seems to me that Louisiana should be working extra hard to try and funnel more money into education, not cut it. Yeah, comments in TFA brought up the topic of cutting funding for education in Louisiana.
It should also be noted that this bill is being promoted heavily by the Catholic Church. TFA takes pains to also talk about a medical conscience bill that would protect doctors, pharmacists, etc., from repercussions if they opt not to participate in any procedure that violates their conscience or faith. In other words, this would allow pharmacists to refuse to prescribe the morning-after pill if they oppose abortion. It's worth noting that TFA is a bit slanted in its coverage -- it does not, for example, discuss whether the claims of equivalence between the morning-after pill and abortion are in fact valid. (Other news sources have openly questioned the validity of this comparison, usually citing opposing viewpoints.)
I'm hoping there will be an intelligent discussion here about the dangers of setting up different classes of organisms for experimentation -- those who are fair game for genetic experiments and in-depth analysis of fundamental cellular mechanisms, and those who are not. Reasonable scientists might point out, for instance, all the benefits of using a hybrid approach to solve a vexing technical issue, even if that's just a stopgap measure. They might also warn of the dangers of missing out on crucial insights because we're not working with material sufficiently close to our own genes and cells. But instead, I fear this whole thing is going to degenerate into a bunch of jokes about furries...
That said, some of the comments in TFA about mermaids and "centars" were hilarious. :-)
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Then it seems you're entirely mistaken.
I hope to god you've never said that to your parents. If any of my kids or grandkids said that to me I'd be very hurt.
I've been retired for eleven years and my wife and I have been very generous in helping the kids over rough spots. If I ever heard anything like this from one of them, I might just find a new beneficiary for my Lump-Sum death benefit.
Sadly, if this law passed in its current state, it would outlaw transgenic lab animals, as you postulate. Therefore, I would be surprised if it passed in its current state. All the scientists at universities throughout Louisiana would jump all over this.
The human embryo in an animal womb, and vice versa, might survive. Such a need is beyond current science and technology. However, it is sad to see science pre-emptively stifled. What about growing human organs in pigs, or some other such creature? That would be a human-animal hybrid, and this law would make it illegal. (I realize that we aren't even close, if it is possible, but based on our existing biology it is not 'impossible'.)
yes... and being complicit in the murder of Jews, the inquisition, destruction of libraries, suppression of knowledge, murder and unbelievably barbaric torture of anyone who happened to disagree with them (burning alive, to name one), hoarding of wealth; not to mention priests who force their penises into children.
I'm a recovering catholic. Fuck the pope, fuck Catholics who blindly follow without questioning, and fuck Catholicism.
I would say this pretty much makes sex illegal in Louisianna. Half of the population are animals anyway...
Or Boxer, Reid, Schumer, Frank, Dodd..... anything would be better than the crap we have representing us.
Human: Animalia , Chordata, Mammalia, Primates, Hominidae, Homo, H. sapiens.
I thought humans WERE animals, as evidenced by our scientific classification under the biological kindom Animalia.
Perhaps these should be called Cross-Genus hybrids?
If you outlaw human-animal hybrids, then only outlaws will be human animal hybrids!
Culturally, New Orleans and the surrounding areas are heavily Catholic. The French history of Louisiana cannot be denied.
Additionally, you don't supply any numbers, so I checked Wikipedia. The percentage of Catholics is 30%, and the percentage of Baptists (all groups calling themselves Baptist) is 38% -- not exactly the overwhelming majority you're making it out to be, and the two groups are statistically close. Don't like Wikipedia? Fine, here's another source. According to this article, 31% of the state's residents are "evangelical," which includes Baptists, while 28% are Catholic. Again, both groups are pretty close, though note the even smaller difference in this set of figures.
The point is, trying to say Louisiana is majority Baptist is disingenuous and ignores the cultural heritage of Louisiana. Mardi Gras is a French/Creole phenomenon, and that group is almost entirely Catholic.
Furthermore, the article linked in the summary clearly states that this legislation was submitted at the request of the Catholic Church (via Archbishop Alfred Hughes and the Conference of Catholic Bishops). If you'd take the time to read TFA, you'd realize that the person you're responding to is "bashing" the right sect, because that's the religious sect mentioned in the article. All this blather about Baptists sounds like a pissing contest to me. Really, dude, why do you care so much about your narrow world view that you need to try to hijack this thread with some pointless diversion about a religious group not mentioned in the fucking article? Because you're pissed off that someone suggested a different religious group has more political power than yours does?
In short, do try to keep it on topic, m'kay?
then they remember it's Louisiana. This needs to be Federal! We need a treaty ratified just like the Kyoto protocol. Wait shit we wrote that and didn't sign it. hmmm... suggestions welcome!
WTF Slashdot, why do I have to login 50 times to post?
Actually, I'll be waiting for someone to screw up the wording and accidentally make it outlaw things like having a pig valve transplanted into your heart (a very common procedure).
How would this affect something like pig pancreatic islet transplantation? There have been great advances in the treatment of diabetes through the transplantation of pig pancreatic islets into humans. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/24059.php I don't think that these people thought out the repercussions of the legislation.
"...given the Catholic Church accepts Evolution and the Protestant faiths do not ..."
That's not true. Most mainstream Protestant denominations are fully accepting of evolution and other findings of modern science. I can speak with certainty that my own church (Presbyterian Church-USA) accepts evolution, and AFAIK several other large denominations (Methodists, Episcopalians) share essentially the same theology.
I do know that many Baptist churches reject evolution, and they make up a large portion of Protestants in the US, but by no means all Protestants are anti-science.
hybrids involving jackals
...is indicative you're probably one of these dysfunctional types that wasn't breastfed...
Keep your psychological issues to yourself. You have absolutely no business projecting them on anyone else, anonymously or otherwise.
I couldn't speack about every branch of scientific research, but from here (italy unfortunately core of the catholic church) they oppose much about applying scientific findings for the betterment of mankind for example:
- condom to avoid venereal malady diffusion
- contraception in general to avoid underage pregnancy and other cases of undesired child
- artificial insemination to help family to have child when natural methods fail
- abortion pill to avoid phisical intrusive abortion
- ecc....
and if those were only for the faitfull, well, their choice, but when the vatican instigate italian politician (another nation!) to make law that prohibit those things to all italians comprised the majority that's christian only nominally or agnostic or atheist, well it's a problem!
Anyone who's been to Louisiana knows that such hybridization has already occurred.
Gee, thank you for making all these decisions for me.
I am too dumb to make them for myself.
Thank you, oh wise one.
The fact that children are a lot of work post-pregnancy is no reason to ignore a possible technology that makes the actual gestation/birth process easier.
You sound like you would be more at home in a church than on Slashdot.
That's one of the stupidest and most judgmental things I've ever heard. I am an atheist, but I can appreciate OP's point. Raising a human being is a full-time job for a very long time. The gestational period is one of the most important parts of the parent-child relationship, as the bond really begins at that time.
Making it easier isn't the point, and it certainly has nothing whatsoever to do with being religious. Unless religiousness now has something to do with just being a decent human being.
So now, in a country embroiled over the argument between evolution and "intelligent design", we're now outlawing a more correct application of the term?
Doesn't anyone remember Bush's 2006 SOU address?
http://forums.comicbookresources.com/archive/index.php/t-107625.html
http://www.badgerblues.org/2006/02/01/human-animal-hybrids-and-scientific-research/
Why do so many posters keep conflating this with religion? Even IF this were submitted by an organization with religious ties, isn't this a common sense / human dignity issue?
We shouldn't be screwing around with the future of our own species. If we want to engineer devices that augment the human body to make it work better, I guess that's fine - but we should be respecting what nature evolved over millions of years. It's a finely tuned machine that we cannot fully understand, certainly not now, probably not ever.
I always think back to ST:TNG; despite the advanced technology, they left the human animal in it's natural state. Geordi had a visor, not artificial eyes. Picard had a mechanical heart, they didn't grow him a new one.
Now, obviously ST:TNG is just a show. However, I've always thought that vision of the future was more dignified than the direction we seem to be going with this biomechanical research.
My wife had a high-risk pregnancy due to two-drug hypertension and maternal age. She did indeed have a C-section for failure of labor to progress, and stayed three days. Other than that, our experience was nothing like you describe.
Our daughter was washed, measured, and examined about five feet from my wife, and placed in her arms (awake C-section with epidural) five minutes after delivery, not "several hours". What exactly is the baby's mucus supposed to do to "promote mother-child bonding", anyway?
Breastfeeding was strongly encouraged, ideally withing the first hour.
(btw, your #5a sounds like pure urban legend).
We were encouraged to handle and carry our baby as much as we wanted.
We were told that co-sleeping is fine, and that the tragedies sometimes blamed on co-sleeping were almost invariably the result of the baby sleeping with an intoxicated adult.
My wife's anesthesia was completely covered by insurance.
You obviously had a bad experience, but it sounds like dealing with you wasn't a great experience for the staff, at least some of whom were surely sincere folks trying to help.
The most dismaying thing, in my mind, is that a post so filled with sensationalist accusations gets modded to +5. Methinks slashdotters haven't a clue.
A third more financially attractive alternative would favor the mother for the much higher bone mass, protein and available fats to render.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
I think they must have meant banning any more human hybrids in the state.
There goes my patent on making a biped smart enough to operate a backhoe, but too dumb to form a labor union.
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
...of becoming a werewolf. I guess being a Furrie is the best I'll be able to do now.
I'll sleep better knowing we have patriots like this in our country.
Some of the folks down there are the spawn of lazy dog-fuckers.
*** Don't be dull.***
well I would have to disagree there... as many people have already commented your statement isn't entirely correct. personally I believe life has equal value in the mother and child (as long as it is recognizable as human which in my book is pretty early in the gestation period) given that life has equal value if it be a mother an unborn child or even a criminal a life should only be ended if that life is causes mortal danger to another and then only after careful consideration to the outcome I value life and take care that I respect it if you don't value your life don't use legislation to devalue the lives of others against their will people get tired of the same old same old... but that doesn't mean that they aren't worth arguing over and even fighting for in fact the worst thing that can ever happen is to just give in to the trends look where that got us in the economy look where it is leading us morally
So do I... none.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
I beg to differ.
Where do you think said senator came from in the first place!
Watch your legislature in action sometime, it's like hanging around the stockyards...except the shit piles up faster.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Manimal comment?
... effectively outlawing about a third of the population of Louisiana.
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
> I really hope there's an obscure reference that's setting me up for a 'whoosh' here, because if you're serious, you should look into a few names:
Perhaps YOU should look into who set up the university system, Gregor Mendel, Newton or why all those scientific controversies happened within the church rather than repeating old propaganda. It's because they were early scientists and most of them were claiming things they couldn't yet prove. For example, the unmeasurably small stellar parallax was a very good reason to doubt that the Earth moved with respect to the fixed stars until someone could better explain things. Ironically, that situation is sort of like string theory. Yes, it makes the math simpler (sort of), but where's the proof? And what about all these extra dimensions?
You realize that the whole 'Enlightenment' was the process of the scientific community divorcing itself from the Church, no? Then why don't you realize that, until then, they were the same community? That's right, the Church was responsible for creating the scientific community. No, it wasn't always perfect, because moral arguments got confused with scientific arguments at times. But for all your talk of stifling and hampering, you ignore the fact that they created those communities in the first place because you only listen to the angry people who caused the splits in the first place.
But it's funny to hear all this from people who have only read a few tidbits of propaganda. I suggest you take a history of science class like I did.
What if the leather coat is sewn inside your body, and without it you die? For instance, there are people who get heart valves transplanted from cows or pigs.
I think these people could be called hybrids. They have functioning body parts from other animals in their bodies.
What definition of "hybrid" would allow for a centaur, for instance, but not for someone who has a pig's heart valve?
I know which faith I'd rather have influencing law makers.
...while the Catholic Church does do some anti-science things, they can't hold a candle to the anti-science that comes from Protestants.
I know which faith I'd rather have influencing law makers: none at all. I am an athiest, but I have nothing against Christians, as long as they stay in their world, and leave mine alone. Why should they have a say in what science does, on religious grounds? They've chosen to believe in their faith, and I wish not to be penalized because I have chosen to believe in mine.
And as for the other point about Protestants being worse, the lesser of two evils is still an evil. If I get hit by a cyclist instead of a semi, it is a good thing, but getting hit by a cyclist is still bad. (Couldn't resist a pseudo-car analogy)
(To the easily offended: I am not at all implying Christianity is evil, I was using a saying)
We'll just code around it once we can duplicate the molecules that make up the human genome. After all, there's no law against creating synthetic humans that are entirely identical to their natural counterparts, right?
(What, you didn't think you were special now, did ya?)
8==8 Bones 8==8
Are cyborgs also banned ?
Well, you're making the mistake of thinking that Louisiana is a homogeneous state. It may be true that the majority of the population of Louisiana is Protestant, this really only holds true in the northern and central part of the state. South Louisiana, which gave birth to Mardi Gras, always has and will probably always be majority Catholic.
By the time you reach North Louisiana, that influence has diminished significantly and you'll find that the majority population is now Protestant. It's just that when people think of Louisiana, they think of New Orleans and not much else.
Karma: Positive. Mostly effected by cowbell.
There's no way this withstands a 2nd amendment challenge...the NRA will be all over it.
I worry about that myself. The biggest thing I worry about is that my son will turn out to be evil or worthless and I'll have to use my dying breath to kill him in disgust. I might have to collect a sword or two and tell him stories about Ivan the Terrible's kid. Ivan the Terrible's only son was bad, so Ivan lost his cool and chopped him in half. Ivan was, well, Terrible...
The sad irony of your post, is that, if you let your kid get that out of hand as an older child, only means that you did not establish authority when they were younger. I think the earlier you establish your authority, the more likely a child is to be good, and the longer you let it go, the worse a child is likely to get. Love children yes, but, raising them is an act of conscience construction.
AS it is, if you got put in jail by your own kid, why is he still alive? I mean, a felony already ruined your life. You may take one for the team, did society a favor, and gave him something to really call the cops on you about.
This is my sig.
To think that a mad scientist from the bayou could build a personal army of crocodile-men! We should be thankful this representative has the bigger picture in mind!
This is way more important than better levees and surf breaks!
}0.o{
This bill will have no effect. In Louisiana, humans rarely use artificial insemination to reproduce with farm animals.
Years ago Bruce Sterling pointed out that Louisiana would make a perfect latter day primordial swamp for genetic experimentation.
I for one would love to see Selacamps swimming through the bayou.
Only hybrid humans can save us from this fate and defeat genetically modified politicians.
So it is written.
Unless they were specifically excepted, a law against human-animal hybrids would probably also ban transgenic animals with human genes. These include:
Animals engineered to produce human proteins to be used as treatment for human disease.
Animals engineered to express human proteins as disease models for testing treatments of human disease, such as mice expressing genes associated with Alzheimer's Disease or Huntington's Disease
Animals engineered to express human proteins for basic research, to study the function of those proteins
An immediate consequence of such a law would probably be a lot of researchers in cutting-edge fields of biology leaving the state.
Obligatory futurism: H+ Magazine
make it illegal to "create or attempt to create a human-animal hybrid, ...
I think what they are talking about here is not "hybrids", but chimaeras: individuals whose body is a mix of cells from more than one genetic background. In any case this is a load of emotionally charged claptrap on so many levels:
1: Humans are already animals, biologically. While I don't believe it is actually possible to produce offspring from a human/non-human mating, there is nothing inherently wrong in this. Where the "wrongness" comes in is in the consequences for the theoritical offspring - would they be able to live worthy lives? etc
2: Not only are we animals, but we are also a mixture of wildly different species of cells: there are several orders of magnitudes more bacterial cells than human cells in an average human, so it is not really as if we are "pure" in that sense. Where there may be cause for concern is when the cells that make up body and brain tissues are of different species or from different individuals. We know that there are human/human chimaeras, which can cause trouble (eg. there has been cases where a mother "can't be" the parent of her own child because the egg-producing tissue was gentically different). We don't know whether it is at all possible to make other types of chimaeras or how it would affect the offspring.
Personally I think it is possible, but we certainly need to think carefully before we let such a fetus progress to term; just to start with, we need to answer questions about whether it would be considered human or not, legally. My instinct is that the advantages of producing human interspecies chimaeras would be very modest, while the disadvantages would be heavy - IOW, not worth the investment, basically. Apart from all the other concerns, one may fear that it would allow many more viruses to jump from animals to humans because of the intimate contact between the cells of different species in such an individual.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_of_Dr._Moreau