Dennis Hollingsworth

There's a Debate?

I remember this movie when I was a kid. The scenes of half man and half bull (and pigs) were pretty startling. Forty years later, we have this:

Scientists debate blending of human, animal forms

Well, that's a great issue to debate.

humanzee

chimeras

"Such "humanized" animals could have countless uses."

But few scientists are eager to do that experiment. The risk, they say, is that some human cells will find their way to the developing testes or ovaries, where they might grow into human sperm and eggs. If two such chimeras ? say, mice ? were to mate, a human embryo might form, trapped in a mouse.

Now Weissman says he is thinking about making chimeric mice whose brains are 100 percent human. He proposes keeping tabs on the mice as they develop. If the brains look as if they are taking on a distinctly human architecture ? a development that could hint at a glimmer of humanness ? they could be killed, he said. If they look as if they are organizing themselves in a mouse brain architecture, they could be used for research.

Apparently, all glimmers must die.

Update: The debate should be renewed about the distinctions between human and animal life. It's an important one with heavy ramifications.