Animal-Human Hybrids Spark Controversy (from Nat'l Geographic)

[DustMolecule]

<snip>
Scientists have begun blurring the line between human and animal by producing chimeras—a hybrid creature that's part human, part animal.

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....

...Scientists feel that, the more humanlike the animal, the better research model it makes for testing drugs or possibly growing "spare parts," such as livers, to transplant into humans...

... But creating human-animal chimeras—named after a monster in Greek mythology that had a lion's head, goat's body, and serpent's tail—has raised troubling questions: What new subhuman combination should be produced and for what purpose? At what point would it be considered human? And what rights, if any, should it have?
<snip>

More:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0125_050125_chimeras.html

[tridim]

1. Scary stuff

Imagine a Cat/Human hybrid playing in the NBA.

[DBoon]

2. a rhinoceros/human hybrid

would explain freerepublic

[htuttle]

3. Paging Dr. Moreau. Paging Dr. Moreau

[HeeBGBz]

4. That would explain the chimperor n/t

[ooglymoogly]

14. lol eom

[Southern Dem 2005]

5. Thats Great!

[proud patriot]

6. I have a serious problem with this

x( ..This is why we need STRICT regulations

[Crandor]

7. Simpsons quote:

Bart: How would I go about creating a half-man, half-monkey-type creature?
Ms.K: I'm sorry, that would be playing God.
Bart: God shmod! I want my monkey-man!

[livinginphotographs]

8. Or the octoparrot.

"Awk! Polly shouldn't be!"

[hector459]

9. Hey, aren't they living up to the "beasts" of Revelations?

The body of a man, head of beasts thingy.

[DustMolecule]

15. sure seems like it..... n/t

[Modem Butterfly]

10. Sounds like bullshit to me

Seriously. This sounds like someone is having a laugh at National Geographic's expense.

[JHB]

12. Whether or not their work pans out is one thing...

...but it's not just bullshit:

Chinese Researchers Make Cloned hESC’s in Rabbit Eggs
Saturday, 16 August 2003; Updated 17 Aug. 2003

A research group based in Shanghai, China, has succeeded to clone and isolate human ES cells using rabbit eggs as ‘carriers’. More than 100 of the hybrids, made by fusing human skin cells with rabbit eggs, were allowed to develop in laboratory dishes for several days before the scientists destroyed them to retrieve embryonic stem cells from their interiors. The researchers, led by Hui Zhen Sheng of Shanghai Second Medical University, describe the details of their work over the last several years in this week’s online edition of Cell Research. The Cell Research is a peer-reviewed bimonthly scientific journal affiliated with the Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology and supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The paper will appear in print later this month (Y. Chen et al. Cell Res. 13, 251–263; 2003).
--more----
http://www.geocities.com/giantfideli/art/CellNEWS_China_MixedClone.html

Link to research paper:
http://www.cell-research.com/20034/2003-116/2003-4-05-ShengHZ.htm

[HamdenRice]

11. We don't need Human-Chimp hybrids ...

because there are already enough red state, red neck republicans.

[norml]

13. Children of Belial vs. Children of the Law of One.

According to the Edgar Cayce readings, these mutants were
the result not only of genetic tampering but also the union
of animals (Homo Sapiens?) with the "THINGS". The most
renowned psychic reader of the century left us the following
record on the Atlantean era: "There was not a labouring for
the sustenance of life (as in the present), but rather
individuals who were children of the Law of One--- and some
who were the children of Belial (in the early experience)---
were served by automatons, or THINGS, that were retained by
individuals or groups to do the labors of a household, or to
cultivate the fields or the like, or to perform the
activities of artisans." Interpreting his father's readings
on Atlantis, Edgar Evans Cayce says the term "THINGS" refers
to "the life form creations of the spiritual beings believe, the Nephilim] who had projected themselves into
materiality....the earth was proceeding along anevolutionary
pattern...which was interrupted by the projection into
materiality of these thought forms. It sounds as if they,
in many cases, mixed with animals, the results being
sometimes quite bizarre." Based on his Cayce research, Brad
Steiger in his book ATLANTIS RISING concludes that some of
these creatures carried "physical deformities, such as
feathered appendages, webbed feet, and other animal-like
features". As an extra, insidious feature of Atlantean
culture, the sons of Belial soon discovere cybernetic
control of the human brain. They cracked the DNA code,
enabling them to shape heredity. Such control resting in
unethical hands could only result in the creation of more
"THINGS". Well, it was precisely this violation of the RNA
and DNA chains that interfered with and severly curtailed
Man's relationship to god. "How could this be?" you say.
You see,through the control of the brain waves and the
neurological system with its delicate balance in the
interchange of the life-force from Spiritual Man through the
chakras to the organs and cells of genetic man, the sons of
Belial, to use the Cayce term, altered humanity's genetic
capacity for psychic (soul or 'solar') awareness.

snip http://www.skepticfiles.org/silly/fallen.htm