Monday, April 02, 2007

DOCS MAKE SHEEP PART HUMAN, BUT WHICH PART?

You may have heard about the chimera--the sheep with 15% human cells making up it's sheep body. That's what a chimera (keemehrah) is, btw, a part human part other animal being. The first in human history were mythical in ancient myths, like the minotaur. The latest one is real and hopefully represents a step closer to creating human replacement organs quickly and easily. The theory goes, if we can figure out a way to make sheep give birth to sheep with human organs inside, then we can simplify the organ-replacement process. See, it only takes a couple of months for a sheep to grow large enough for its organs to be comparable to human organs. So, say you have a bum kidney. You get some bone marrow taken (not a pleasant process, but a fairly simple one), they inject it into a sheep fetus and all you need to do then is stay alive for a few months until the sheep is born and grows up a bit. (This is all according to [http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news! /news.html?in_article_id=444436&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=|a March 27, 2007 article] at http://MailOnSunday.co.uk that I read.) Now this is all fine and good, but what about the whole "Playing God" thing? I have no problems with humans playing God. Personally, I think it's our destiny to eventually control everything about our lives and our universe. The thing is, in the meantime, we've still got a looong way to go. So, my question is how will we Play God well? What's to stop those cells from making a sheep brain part or even all-human? What's to guarantee that when the baby sheep pops out it doesn't start crying like a human baby? I have yet to read or hear anything about a plan to even deter such Frankensteinian horror shows from happening. I know you have to break some eggs to make clone omelettes, but these not-so-little experiments are likely to make some pretty messed up eggs. I think the results of these tests should be put on YouTube for the world to see. Keep everything transparent so we know if we should protest or not.

Orignal From: DOCS MAKE SHEEP PART HUMAN, BUT WHICH PART?

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