Chimaera's---half human and half animal---are being formed. Even the thought of it sends chills up my spine. But its happened several times at major universities across the world. (Just last year at the Mayo Clinic, pigs were developed with human blood pumping through their arteries.)
What's wrong with it? One of the most basic problems would be that mutations would (not could) occur, transforming a virus only found in animals to a virus that humans could be susceptible to. The danger? Its common knowledge that the human body come across viruses every day, and that it is constantly building immunities to those viruses. But what happens if the body come across a virus that is completely new that its immune system has never encountered before? Lets just say, the results could be devastating to the world's population. Its happened before---thousands of American Indians died after Europeans brought new viruses that they had never been exposed to before. More recently, it is thought that SARS was originally a virus from cats or pigs that mutated into a form that humans could be susceptible to.
Enough ranting on my part. Here's the link to the full article by National Geographic.
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1 comment:
I wouldn't have a big problem with it, if they didn't kill the human embryo in the process. Thats murduer.
On another note, this kind of reaserch can help with medical technology, such as blood transfusions.
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