In Greek mythology, chimeras were vicious monsters feared by many. This fire-breathing animal had the head and body of a lioness, with a goat head protruding from her back and the tail of a snake.
Today, “chimera”
refers to an animal that has two or more different sets of genetically distinct
cells working together. Remember the mouse with the ear on its back?
Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical
University in 2003 successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs. The embryos
were reportedly the first human-animal chimeras successfully created. They were
allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory dish before the scientists
destroyed the embryos to harvest their stem cells.
The experiment of the rat with a human ear is not the only one that presents hybridization between animals and people, these are other cases:
Pigs with Human
Blood
A year after the successful Chinese chimera experiment, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota announced they had created pigs with human blood pumping through their veins. What was startling about the animal is not only did the pig blood cells flow with human cells, but some of the cells merged together, creating pig-human cell hybrids. Scientists said this experiment can give them a better understanding of how viral infections can pass from animals to humans such as HIV and various others.
Humanzee
We share over 98 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, so would it be possible to create a human-chimp hybrid: a "humanzee," also called a "chuman" or "chumanzee"?
Several
researchers and citizens see such experiments has highly immoral and there is
no known evidence of a human-chimp hybrid.
Oliver, the humanzee :
Also I leave a blog we created this work wide more about hybridity, please visit it and leave a comment:
https://hybridizationbetweenhumanityandanimal.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/hybridization-between-humanity-and-animal/
GROUP 11
From my personal point of view, I don't think playing as if we were God is a good idea. We should not to mix species, because we can destroy the species, and even the environment, and we also can create monsters, so, we should leave the nature as it is. As I have said, this is my personal point of view, probably you or somebody can think in a different way like me.
ResponderEliminarScience is opening lots of frontiers, but it sometimes is on the limit between moral and biologic research.
ResponderEliminarWe have to be responsible and be careful with those issues.
We think by heart that science is necesary to the development of the society, but is really important to stablish a boundary between research and ethics. As we read in comments above, we can not play God can only try to understand what surrounds us. We would love to know what you think about this topic. Congratulations for the post.
ResponderEliminarThanks for all your comments. Our opinion on this issue is divided, we believe that thanks to the hybridization between animals and humans, the result can help people such as organ transplant or blood transfusions, although this means that the animals are affected to which we are against. On the contrary, we are totally against hybridization between animals and humans by simple curiosity to see what the result is. As is the case with Oliver, human or monkey? Science should never cross these limits
ResponderEliminarFrom my personal point of view, on one hand, I don't think playing as if we were God is a good idea. But in the other hand, I think that is the only way to improve our science and society.
ResponderEliminar