Animal-Human Hybrids Spark Controversy
Scientists have begun blurring the line between human and animal by producing chimeras—a hybrid creature that’s part human, part animal.
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I think they should just do it.
I woule very much like to have an exoskeleton, so I could endure much more pressure.
All kidding aside, I think morality and ethics are seriously impeding humanity’s and scientific progress.
If we ever want to leave this planet (which will be advisable if we want to survive as a species) we will most probably need to modify ourselves.
But for some reason, genetic alteration seems to be stigmatised as Evil.
I don’t have a solution, but I think that researchers should get a lot more leeway to improve life in the long run.
Furries?
Hmmm…verrrry interesting…
sings
They’re Pinky and the Brain, They’re Pinky and the Brain…
One is a genius, the other insane!
They’re laboratory mice, whose genes have been spliced!
They’re dinky, they’re Pinky and the Brain…
Sorry 
D’oh! Poeticyde beat me to it!
I’m all for science but some of this stuff is kind of creepy. What would happen if they let one of these chimaera’s develop completely and it was viable? Aside from making all the talk show rounds, what would become of it?
Paging Dr. Moreau…
It could always run for office.
(insert well-worn joke about chimp in the White House here)
deena, posting copyrighted material, except for small excerpts, is against the board rules.
The original article can be found at National Geographic’s website.
So how does Mr. Rifkin think that various dog breeds came to be? Or mules? Does he oppose those tamperings? The method is different, but the concept is the same.
The problem becomes that as we develop more capable technologies to do what we’ve been doing or attempting for ages, the extremes to which we take these efforts become further out into the realm of the new.
Now, I would agree that we need to be careful and thoughtful about any particular application of radical biotechnology. But it seems to me there are many people who are more than willing to throw out the baby with the bathwater because it makes them squeamish. We had that problem when power lines were first strung across the country and some people thought that they would cause all manner of health problems for humans and livestock. Now, I don’t think you would find many people who would be willing to give up their power lines. In vitro fertilization caused a tremendous fuss over the nature of reproduction and human life. Today, it helps many couples have children who could not otherwise.
Caution is good. Abject terror of the unknown is bad, and will prevent us from improving our collective living conditions.
I previously warned you about copyright infringement in this thread.
You commit one more infraction of any SDMB policy, and you’re out of here, deena.
Cajun Man
for the SDMB