Egads! These X-Mice will be unstoppable once they get their hands on the military’s rat-brain-controlled F-22 fighter jets and remote control SWORDS robots! The twilight of mankind is upon us.
I, for one, welcome our new Super Rodent overlords.
But isn’t the true question at hand whether or not these scientists can produce viable ligers?
I don’t suppose they could come up with a minkwoman? 
*They’re Pinky and The Brain
Yes Pinky and The Brain
One is a genius, the other’s insane
They’re laboratory mice, their genes have been spliced
They’re dinky, they’re Pinky and The Brain Brain Brain Brain Brain
Before each night is done, their plan will be unfurled
By the dawning of the sun they’ll take over the world!*
Brain: Promise me something, Pinky. Never breed.
Pinky: I’ll try.
Do these Chimeras actually LOOK like combinations between humans and animals? If they did it would kick ass.
I’d want my chimera to be bright, but I’m not sure I’d want my Chimera to be this Bright.
I’m all for a specialized animal (usually pigs right now IIRC) for organ transplant. I may be wrong, but I think the issue most concerning people is whether you may end up (inadvertently or not) raising the level of conciousness of an animal, at which point you may question whether it’s an animal, person, or slave to some company.
Couldn’t find a cite, but I do recall this being brought up several years ago when it was made illegal in Japan to create a chimera. I thought this was ironic, since as Harborwolf alluded, you’re hard pressed to find a Japanese cartoon without one.
In Tom the Dancing Bug, the comic strip by Ruben Bolling, there was once a bit about a genetically-engineered organ-donor man-cow (property of Nerrex Corporation, and regularly being mined for livers and kidneys) who one day announced, “I want a gun!” “The creature had inadvertently presented an ethical dilemma!” “Can we deny this creature its right, as an American, to bear arms?” “But is it an American? And does it have the capacity to responsibly use such a weapon?” “At last it was decided that a gun could safely be offered for purchase, since as a slave and the property of Nerrex Corp., the beast had no money.”
The series *Dark Angel * featured the amazingly hot Jessica Alba as a genetically created super-soldier who has part cat DNA. Not to spoil the series, but there were others just like her. It was a groundbreaking show and the possibilities of humaniamals and chimeras were well presented.
You just have to watch the show to see how the concept is expanded. This show left me with a lot of questions unanswered.
And how hot is Jessica Alba???
I liked the show, but I disagree that it presented the ideas well. One of the basic premises of the show was that the transgenic products of Project Manticore had a bar code encoded in their DNA. The genetic sequence expressed itself on the back of the neck. If the pattern was removed by laser, or the skin was cut off, it regrew perfectly in about a week. The Manticore scientists were able to overcome all kinds of problems to do something this complex. However, the soldiers produced by Manticore had serious problems producing enough serotonin- something the average human or cat does without difficulty. So, the scientists were able to do something complicated and very difficult (regenerating bar codes) but unable to do something simple (proper serotonin levels).
But that’s what made this show realistic; there were flaws, which even Lydecker admitted to the kids having. Anyway, the show was groundbreaking in terms of genetic possibiliites and problems in the future, and it was also groundbreaking for many other reasons. I think Dark Angel was simply ahead of its time and America was not yet ready, which is why it was abruptly cancelled.
By creating chimeras, there would initially be the question of the boundary between human and animal. Animals with human characteristics would pose ethical questions and really give alot of backing for PETA. Humans with animal characterisitics would raise questions like “what is the ideal human?” Remember The Island of Dr. Moreau?
Those problems might result from genetic engineering on humans even without adding non-human DNA. In Heinlein’s novel Friday, there is a category of “articificial persons” who, in most countries, are not considered human and do not have any legal rights. In some places, they’re slaves. Some AP’s are made with animal DNA, some are made for specialized purposes, and some are not really sentient beings (that part’s not fleshed out too much, but there’s a passing mention of “kobolds” who are bred to be mine-slaves). But many, like the protagonist Friday Jones, are made entirely with human DNA, and if anything are superhuman in their abilities. Yet the world still despises her and her kind.
