National Geographic has an article about animal-human hybrids they refer to as Chimeras. Their report includes experiments such as fusing human cells to rabbit eggs, pigs with human blood flowing throught their veins, and an expected experiment to create mice with human brains. While I agree with using experiment such as this to further the health of humans, some of these are becoming pretty scary. The goal for the mouse is evidently to have a 100% human brain and the researcher is going to look for signs of human cognitive activity before destroying it. Granted, he is not giving the mouse the ability to think like a human, he is merely seeing if the mouse could function if the mouse's brain was made of human brain cells.
What if it were one day possible to successfully create a living half human half animal? Would they have the same rights as us, the same respect? What are the implications of creating a humanlike intelligence in animals? I guess what scares me the most about this field is the possible danger to the human race. Will any of these chimeras enable virus's from animals to transfer to humans? Is it possible that some half human half animal with great intelligence and an increased aggression started conducting gorilla warfare on small towns everywhere? I know none of this is exactly possible now as they are merely working on a few cells, but these are definatly issues that need to be dealt with.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
View the online world with Firefox!
No comments:
Post a Comment