Human-Animal Chimeras and Hybrids

a reply to: BuckyWunderlick

I disagree.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: BuckyWunderlick

I disagree.

Raising animals for food is not the same as creating chimeras no matter whether you disagree or not. It’s different in intention, process and result.

a reply to: BuckyWunderlick

It is creating an animal (which will be killed) for our benefit.
They are qualitatively the same.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: BuckyWunderlick

It is creating an animal (which will be killed) for our benefit.
They are qualitatively the same.

we don’t create cows. Cows aren’t chimeras. They are qualitatively different.

a reply to: BuckyWunderlick

Quantitatively, perhaps. Since they are produced via hybridization rather than genetic modification.

In the end, the result is the same. The animal is killed for our benefit.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: BuckyWunderlick

Quantitatively, perhaps. Since they are produced via hybridization rather than genetic modification.

for me the difference happens when you add human DNA to the equation.
if you add chicken DNA to a cow to make bigger chicken nuggets, i don't see problem here.
you add human DNA to a pig to make a liver, that is when things get murky for me.

Humans are to expensive, fragile and very suicidal when bred industrial.

But chimeras COME ON ridiculous.

Make it mandatory like in the old days, where every Farmer had to dedicate part of his fields to the production of hemp, for sails, ropes, and uniforms for the military, which after all would secure our survival.
We definitely made some progress as humanity or didn't we?
Everyones second child gets raised, only for harvesting it's Organs? Overpopulation solved, organs for every one. That would solve soooooo muche problems at once...

But these pesky humans and their ethics.

Sincerely No Clue

a reply to: subfab

I can see the ethical question. But I can't see it being any different from the same question about eating meat. I wonder how you might feel about it if you had liver disease.

How do you feel about using genetic engineering to produce insulin?

Food? Organs? Don't you think that the secretive military-industrial complex have already made a man/animal. Stronger, more resilient etc. I can't believe all the billions of dollars have gone on building a better plane or a better gun. I could give a couple of examples but you would find it to outlandish.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: subfab

I can see the ethical question. But I can't see it being any different from the same question about eating meat. I wonder how you might feel about it if you had liver disease.

How do you feel about using genetic engineering to produce insulin?

i guess there has to be a point where the animal crosses over from "animal" to "human".
what would be the tipping point? i don't know. i'm just a factory worker. i don't have the science degrees to have a realistic understanding of what they are trying to do. i'm trying to understand something that is out of my scope of knowledge.

i can only rationalize from my point of view, my limited knowledge of DNA splicing, and my perspective on human rights.

combining human DNA to animal just feels wrong.
i have no research to support this. i can't argue any point either way. i can only go by my feeling.

a reply to: subfab

The idea is to "trick" an animal into growing an organ which can be transplanted into a human. That doesn't make the animal human.

We already use animal parts to replace human heart valves, after all. Is that problematic? Does it make the human an animal?

a reply to: Phage

it's one thing to use the organs of an animal to save human life.
it's one thing to use human organs donated by the person to save life.

it seems different to "grow" human tissue in an animal.

a reply to: subfab

Of course it's different, but having a human liver does not make a pig part human any more that having a pig heart valve makes a human part pig.

And anyway:
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

a reply to: Phage

In that part I very much agree, even powered organs as official medicine (because it works).

a reply to: Phage

my concern is it won't stop with one organ.
if it is medically possible, at some point there will be a crossover where the animal will have enough human parts to be considered human-like. (humanish?)

will it be when it has a human heart?
will it be when it grows human brain tissue?
will it be when the animal tries to communicate?

i don't know.

whether or not we like the idea, the merging of DNA is going to happen.

here at ATS the idea of human-animal hybrids has been around a long time. now it has government approval to move forward in a public way.

some questions i have:
how are these experiments going to be monitored?
who will be monitoring them?
who will decide the repercussions if ethics are violated?
what happens to the data if the research lab is shut down?
what happens to the animals if research gets shut down?

i can only hope people who are ethically strong will oversee the project. else we may be seeing some weird things in the near future.

a reply to: subfab

my concern is it won't stop with one organ.

Yes. Such is often a concern when it comes to new technology, of any sort.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: zosimov

We breed animals to eat, using hybridization. Is that not the same thing?

It is the same thing. Animals would do it if in our shoes too.
Animals will do anything to survive, just like us.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I read an article about apes in some place on the African continent who "dognap" little puppies to make them their pets or whatever those apes "think" they are doing.

It is quiet cruel to watch how the apes capture the dogs.

originally posted by: subfab
will it be when it has a human heart?
will it be when it grows human brain tissue?
will it be when the animal tries to communicate?

Maybe the human brain joined with an animal body is a place to draw the line?

What if there's a human head on a pig body? Does it have any human rights? Or does it have no rights at all?

It does seem like a line could be crossed that probably shouldn't be crossed. I think this is just art and these don't exist yet, but maybe just because we can make them, doesn't mean we should.

originally posted by: schuyler
Since we can, we will. And if we don't do it here because some self-styled "ethicist" says we shouldn't, it will be done elsewhere.

Wondering people who believe abortion is murder, how do they feel about aborting part humans?

we hear of the research they let us hear of, around the world everything is being tried.

Tiny human brain organoids implanted into rodents, triggering ethical concerns
www.statnews.com...