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Hybrid Human-Animal DNA Experiments Raise Concerns
Kevin Fishburne writes
"British scientists are calling for a new agency to oversee the mixing of human and animal DNA, which is progressing at a rate most may not be aware of: 'Among experimentation that might spark concern are those where human brain cells might change animal brains, those that could lead to the fertilization of human eggs in animals and any modifications of animals that might create attributes considered uniquely human, like facial features, skin or speech. ... Some disagree. "We think some of these should be done, but they should be done in an open way to maintain public confidence," said Robin Lovell-Badge, head of stem cell biology and developmental genetics at Britain's Medical Research Council, one of the expert group members. He said experiments injecting human brain cells into the brains of rats might help develop new stroke treatments or that growing human skin on mice could further understanding of skin cancer.'"
This type of research must be taken with very, very small steps. It has to be reviewed by the public and contained in case of dangerous DNA mixing. If there were no throttle on these experiments, the population would start to look like the inhabitants of Dr. Moreau's island.
Imagine: a scientist transfuses the DNA bits that allow a gecko to regrow its tail into an amputee. Will it re-grow the lost limb or will it revert to 'gecko mode' and grow a tail? Will the DNA infect the rest of the person's genome and transmute him into a hybrid with gecko-like qualities? No one knows because no one has dared to that type of experimenting until now.
Or someone transplants the genes from a cow into a human then that person is suddenly succeptible to Cow Pox, a disease related to Smallpox. Now the disease mutates into some new pox disease which spreads like wildfire in the general population. Oh wait, no worries; we have a VACCINE for that!
The earth's people have been silently and surrepticiously turned into a giant lab experiment courtesy of Big Pharma. They are poisoning the food supply with their chemicals and genetically modified "food". They are inventing diseases along side the vaccines which will prevent them, much like how Monsanto's Roundup Ready seeds are immune to the Roundup herbicide. They inject you with a small amount of poison to innoculate you against an even worst toxin they've created. All in the name of profit and most people just eat up the lies without a shred of critical thinking about it.
There are already Chiropractic Veterinarians, perhaps this is where the future of my specialty lay. I should invent a drop table for dealing with our four legged beasts' subluxations and patent it! (just joking, I'm not an inventor)
Note that my expertise is in the nervous system, its function and removing nerve system blockages not genetics. Though this stuff should be easy enough to envision, even if you aren't a molecular biologist.
Bob.
Chiropractic Saves Lives!
Burn all the ethics committee, they slow down research and they do not stop abuse; they only stop bad feelings into the weak minded politically correct, they also provide jobs for those wuss. I say burn them! Burn them with napalm, that will teach them!
Jehovah be praised, Oracle was not selected
Pretty soon we're going to have Golden Retrievers with human-level intelligence running around being chased by vicious kill beasts. Who would have thought Dean Koontz could be so prophetic?
Spay Your Cat Girl.
Ref:http://www.warehouse23.com/item.html?id=SP3001
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
A furry's wet dream... *shudder*
Among experimentation that might spark concern are those where human brain cells might change animal brains, those that could lead to the fertilization of human eggs in animals and any modifications of animals that might create attributes considered uniquely human, like facial features, skin or speech.
They reached this conclusion after much consideration, i.e. watching a preview of Rise of the Planet of the Apes: In the Beginning
Reminds me of this:
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/sciencetech/stalins-deranged-vision-human-ape-super-race/1257
Saw it on History Channel a few years back. Didn't know there was active research going on in mixing human DNA with brains.
Isn't this story a coincidence when the move Rise of the Planet of the Apes is about to come out?? Pretty scary
Previewing comments are for sissies!
tsia
the rise of the planet of the apes coming out in theaters soon?
Oh nooos, somebody get LL Cool J quick!
eat your heart out Seth Brundle
Anything that leads to giant hybrid super-soldiers who have poignant and heartbreaking back stories while providing insightful and challenging commentary on contemporary social and transgenic issues with cute girls is A-OK by me.
www.hip-flask.com
No one expects the Elephantman Inquisition!
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
Do we have to include the ghastly emotive rot among the potentially legitimate concerns?
Zoonotic diseases are certainly a real issue(though we've caught plenty just through good, old-fashioned, living in close proximity), and any techniques that would hypothetically involve the production of excessively human central nervous systems in laboratory animals might get ethically dodgy; but are "skin" and "facial features" really 'uniquely human' attributes that squick us out so much we just can't stand it? The idea that having a cartilage-and-soft-tissue structure that looks kind of human, rather than having a differently shaped one, is somehow an 'ethical' problem, rather than pure squeamishness, is just emotive rot.
"The effect of custom, in preventing any misgiving respecting the rules of conduct which mankind impose on one another, is all the more complete because the subject is one on which it is not generally considered necessary that reasons should be given, either by one person to others, or by each to himself. People are accustomed to believe, and have been encouraged in the belief by some who aspire to the character of philosophers, that their feelings, on subjects of this nature, are better than reasons, and render reasons unnecessary." -J.S. Mill
Finally, I can stop wearing a faux Fox tail!
-Posted by a Furry
If making catgirls becomes illegal in Britain, we'll just make them in Japan. That would be disastrous. The Japanese are already years ahead of us in catgirl technology. We cannot afford a greater catgirl gap.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
...any modifications of animals that might create attributes considered uniquely human, like facial features, skin or speech.
Wait...what?
So we mix some code together and it's what? Not what nature intended? Who give a rat's patoot? Are we playing [insert favorite diety here]? Again, so what?
I'm just having some trouble with the ethical implications. WHAT ethical implications? How is a hybrid any more good or evil than a naturally occurring organism? Help me out here guys, and no offense, but if you can't make an argument without reference to diefic entity nonsense, I'm not interested (unless of course, it's really, really funny).
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
I suspect we'll see a bunch of news stories concerning the topic of that movie.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
... Same thing we do every night Pinky; try and take over the world !
Wait a second.... "concerns"? We want to stop researchers from doing those things?
My first thought was "AWESOME! We're already doing this stuff and no one knew about it? Let's do more!"
Pass laws that any creature with human DNA is human and has the same rights as any other human. Have the law make those who create such creatures be financially responsible for them until such time as they can be demonstrated to be able to care for themselves.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
So they are trying to make their dogs, or goats a little more sexy.
All I know, is if they make a Mog (man dog hybrid) they'd better name him Barf!
As long as I can get a cat that will tell me exactly what it wants instead of me having to figure it out, I'm good.
Then they can apply that gene to women.
From the title I was kind of expecting that they were, like, splicing human and animal genes to create human-goats or something. I was rather disappointed.
Oh well, at least it was one step closer to bringing the end of humanity as we know it. I'm almost looking forward to the point where we start having philosophical debates about whether goat-humans have the same rights as full humans. Of course we would then have to have the far right groups claiming that the pure human race is superior; and the far left groups promoting acceptance of these human hybrid things.
I'm really hoping they get their act together and do this within my lifetime. It would be quite a show.
Are we playing [insert favorite diety here]? Again, so what?
Agreed. Man was created in God's image according to some major religions. As I understand it, and as J.R.R. Tolkien understood it, this includes the capacity to create, and sub-creation of works that echo God's creation is one way that mortals honor God.
Apparently she used her witch powers to see into the FUTURE!!!!
Have gnu, will travel.
http://www.lolpark.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Human-Animal-Funny-Photo.jpg
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
Albert Einstein
I for one welcome our intelligent rat overlords.
What a coincidence! Right on time for the new "Apes Will Rise" planet-of-the-apes movie.
As children, we're scared of the boogeyman. I would think that as adults, we would stop being afraid of imaginary beings. Then again, people still talk about defeating Satan every Sunday. For me, the only thing bread and wine beats is a bad Caesar salad.
But, go ahead, pass your laws. We don't want any Satyrs running around. We might worship freaks, and that's idolatry.
Then again, if you know diddly squat about how DNA actually works, there is no realistic worry about actually creating a human animal hybrid beyond move a gene here or there between very genetically close species. The fact that we even worry I think shows species egotism. Like we're going to become hideous mole people or something.
This is the same line of thinking that leads to outlawing cloning, which ironically, happens every time twins are born.
I8-D
"There are no indigenous vegetarians, let alone vegans."
We can not be sure there are no indigenous Vegans, the star is 26 light years away..
The article, when taken in a general scope, appears to be "Stop making [humans] less unique!" and "Animals might be able to communicate. THE HORROR!!". And this article happens to be timed as Planet of the Apes advertisements are playing.
Can we stop trying to have policies and laws passed based on Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Fiction movies? What next, a UN declaration declaring Smurfs a protected indigenous people and rings (especially green ones) fire arms?
by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?
It isn't so much what's going on in public, but what will happen in private. There have been attempts in the past by, let's call them "less-social regimes," to breed animal hybrid soldiers and whatnot. What happens to the world when a crazy dictator get his hands on some genetics technology and a few willing scientists. What happens when monsters are real? I don't think it's unrealistic to think it's going to eventually be a problem.
Uhm Am I the only one who thinks this will end like the movie splice?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1017460/
This will end badly.
It's fairly obvious what cats want. They want their servants to understand their needs and fulfill their wishes before they have realised what they want, themselves. If you're not doing this, the fault is yours, not theirs. Maybe you're mixed up about who is in charge in that relationship?
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
From the last line of the article: "it’s a human thing to have a memory.”
... the real issue is language. Yes, dolphins, whales, birds, etc. can communicate, but not with an infinitely rich grammar. Many anthropologists (and, not surprisingly, linguists) believe that language is key to understanding the uniqueness of the human mind. To me, that's what makes brain cell implantation freaky.
... just sayin' that we're entering some uncharted waters.
Memory is not the real issue
Surely one cell is not too controversial. Two... maybe a little. But once you start down this path, think about where it could go:
Day 137: Rats seem to react to their names.
Day 409: Rats react to basic commands ("Go left" or "Go right")
Day 687: Rats are able to respond to simple yes/no questions ("Are you hungry?")
Day 992: Rat named Stickers cheeps one word: "Stop."
I'm not passing any judgement on this research
Here's proof that human-animal hybrids would be really cool: http://hipflask.com/
I was thinking a nice thick coat like a leopard or a tiger. With fluffy ankles. Just no rasp like tongue - I can brush it.. It would be nice to be a big kitty cat.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
The Unity will bring above the master race. One able to survive, or even thrive, in the wasteland. As long as there will be differences, we will tear ourselves apart fighting each other. We need one race! One goal! One people... to move forward to our destiny.
My concern is with a hybrid creature that has human DNA their would be a road to more virus making that jump from animal to human. Parvo anyone?
As much as a debate we can get into this, tvtropes covers the basics of this question along with providing many examples of fiction that involves this issue: What Measure Is A Non-Human
God-schmod. I want my monkey man!
Watch out for man-bear-pig.
Al Gore might not be there to save us.
That way we can a link that can transfer diseases from other species to us. The surviving humans would be nearly invulnerable,
bestiality is ok?
Animals came from miles around. So tired of walking so close to the ground... What is the law? No spill blood!
People love Batman and Cat Woman!
Mutagen isn't radioactive mystery goop, it's nanobots programmed to alter the DNA of any living thing it touches.
sudo eat my shorts
Orcs are considered the worst thing Morgoth ever did - a disgraceful mockery of The One's power of creation.
Which sort of fits in with how some people understand Leaf by Niggle . Evil sub-creation produces mockeries of truth, as Morgoth demonstrated, but good sub-creation produces echoes of truth.
This isn't new. Look up enbrel.. its a mouse human combination protein.
So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
DNA would like the idea of injecting human DNA into mice... Where do you think Frankie and Benjy came from?
Dude this story is just astroturfing for the new "rise of the planet of the apes" movie. Do you really think I'm that dumb?
As those advances in hybrid DNA keep evolving, who would have thought that the "Island of Dr. Moreau" is going to move from the fiction category to the documentary section :)
Scottish sheep farmers have been mixing their DNA with animals for centuries.
The last thing we want running around are animals with skin and facial features! Imagine the horror of looking at an animal and not seeing all its musculature and organs. Instead you'd see skin!
Ethics seem quite random to me. If you can make sense of them, do comment. They probably helped us survive. From that standpoint I don't see what could be risky in this research, let them go ahead, Sounds interesting!
I look forward to the day when we are finally able to "cut and paste" with the speed of a monkey, due to our new tails. The performance gap is really bothering me, and Zimbu got promoted again.
Don't chimpanzees already have something like 90% the same DNA as us humans anyway?
All life is already genetically related to some degree.
I'm just sayin'...
Oh, My, I see the Evolution vs. Creation wars escalating to a whole new plane.
I can see the argument to be made: "Giving up their futile attempts to defend their Evolution theory against the argumens of Creative Design, Evolutionists are now seeking to become Creative Designers, themselves!"
"Although they still argue that they are "proving" Evolution, their actions, designing genetic "improvements", prove the Evolutionists to have become Creative Designers. In their efforts to "give God a hand" they are proving that intelligence IS required; that "evolving" improvements, even on a "minor adjustments" human-capability scale, does requires a mind."
Is the Texas School Board suddenly Progressive?
I, for one, welcome our Furry overlords.
This research is not so much about advancing genetic research as a science in itself but about creating experimental animals or making changes that serve humans. The ethics issue is about what limits we set on what we do to animals in our own self-interest; it is primarily an animal rights issue. Is it okay to make a rat's brain like mine so that I can artificially induce strokes to test various treatments? In an age where pluralism is turning the idea of universal truths into pointless relativism, maybe universal human rights no longer has much purchase let alone animal rights, which many seems to be regarded as a "fringe" concept. I worry that our inability to agree on a universal ethic will leave us with none and that we will turn into monsters but not care. The human ability to rationalize is staggering.
This research is not so much about advancing genetic research as a science in itself but about creating experimental animals or making changes that serve humans. The ethics issue is about what limits we set on what we do to animals in our own self-interest; it is primarily an animal rights issue. Is it okay to make a rat's brain like mine so that I can artificially induce strokes to test various treatments? In an age where pluralism is turning the idea of universal truths into pointless relativism, maybe universal human rights no longer has much purchase let alone animal rights, which many seem to regard as a "fringe" concept. I worry that our inability to agree on a universal ethic will leave us with none and that we will turn into monsters but not care. The human ability to rationalize is staggering.
We ARE animals (most of us - I do know a couple of vegetables and one guy who almost attains the fungal level). Why not say "other species"?
I for one...welcome our new planet of the apes overlords....
So thats how Kevin Costner got his gills in Waterworld!
it would be cool if i could be injected with animal dna.