The creation of human-animal chimeras is deeply upsetting to many people. Animal rights groups vehemently oppose the work. Some bioethicists say the work is an affront to human dignity. The U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops calls it the creation of “beings who do not fully belong to either the human race or the host animal species.”
Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University, said many people are fine with the idea of growing organs in animals, but problems arise when the research starts involving what he’s termed “brains and beauty.”
Most people would object, Greely said, to a pig with a human brain, a pig with human cells that can reproduce, or a pig with a human nose. “The big issue is this question of humanness and if we are conferring humanness on nonhumans,” he said. “That is going to make people upset.” Izpisua Belmonte said he wants more than anyone to see clear guidelines.
He understands the importance of what the new technologies, many of them from his lab, portend. “We’re in a critical moment in human evolution. Everything that has happened in the past billion years follows two rules: random mutation and natural selection,” he said. “We’re now at a moment in history where we don’t have to follow Darwin’s rules. We need to be conscious of that.”
Credit to skywatchtv.comhttp://skywatchtv.com/2017/08/15/creator-pig-human-chimeras-watchers-science-going-next/
Credit to skywatchtv.comhttp://skywatchtv.com/2017/08/15/creator-pig-human-chimeras-watchers-science-going-next/
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