"Chimeras"

[AlphaFoxtrotNW]

I am honestly really disturbed by this. I know the Catholic Church does not support human cloning, in vitro fertilization, and other unnatural forms of “creating life”. However, I find it disturbing that the mistakes of Dark Science is once again rearing its ugly head.

An attempt I found of human hybird synthesis dates back to the WW2 Soviet Union, with the goals of making soldiers with the intellegence of a human, but the strength of a Gorilla. (Guess they took the concept of Guerrilla warfare TOO seriously) though reports show that this was largely unsuccessful because surprisingly, Gorillas and Humans dont mix! Shocking!

Researchers in california though wish to make these “Chimera” abominations by inserting human DNA into pig embryos to create human organs for harvesting. I am in correct however that such attempts to create these are against Gods design, and should not be supported. Any thoughts?
theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/05/organ-research-scientists-combine-human-stem-cells-and-pig-dna

 

[mikekle]

Oh yes, there was actually a Russian scientist that tried over and over to produce a gorilla baby from a human female, he used the largest women he could find, and fertilized the women in vitro with gorilla sperm, as he thought this would aid in the birth but he never succeeded thankfully!!

There was also a Nazi project trying to make a half human, half wolf being, that was a fascinating, but cruel experiment to read about.

I know we dont hear about these things too often today, but that does not mean they are not taking place, I believe there are probably quite a few crazy people out there trying some of these things in the world today and sadly, as our understanding of genetics progresses, the closer they get to realizing such creations.

 

[RoseRogers]

I am honestly really disturbed by this. I know the Catholic Church does not support human cloning, in vitro fertilization, and other unnatural forms of “creating life”. However, I find it disturbing that the mistakes of Dark Science is once again rearing its ugly head.

An attempt I found of human hybird synthesis dates back to the WW2 Soviet Union, with the goals of making soldiers with the intellegence of a human, but the strength of a Gorilla. (Guess they took the concept of Guerrilla warfare TOO seriously) though reports show that this was largely unsuccessful because surprisingly, Gorillas and Humans dont mix! Shocking!

Researchers in california though wish to make these “Chimera” abominations by inserting human DNA into pig embryos to create human organs for harvesting. I am in correct however that such attempts to create these are against Gods design, and should not be supported. Any thoughts?
theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/05/organ-research-scientists-combine-human-stem-cells-and-pig-dna

Unlike making gorilla-human soldiers, this is clearly borne from good will and a desire to heal the sick - so the motivation itself is good. I think in this case it’s ‘just’ growing an entirely-human organ in an otherwise entirely-porcine pig.

All the same it is nothing like growing an organ for transplant in a petri dish in a lab (I’m sure all the scientists involved would rather do that but I guess we don’t know how yet!), so even if it doesn’t disgust me it does disturb me. It seems the height of arrogance to mess with the building-blocks and mechanisms of life like this, even when it’s for an entirely good purpose - much like IVF; we can all deeply sympathise with couples who desire children and can’t have them, but such a process however well meaning shouldn’t be tolerated morally.

 

[GEddie]

It seems the height of arrogance to mess with the building-blocks and mechanisms of life like this, even when it’s for an entirely good purpose - much like IVF; we can all deeply sympathise with couples who desire children and can’t have them, but such a process however well meaning shouldn’t be tolerated morally.

With all respect for your feeling, that is all it is.

Research of this type is not per se wrong. They are not trying to create new beings, after all, but only body parts.

ICXC NIKA

 

[AlphaFoxtrotNW]

Well the thing is we are already capable of growing organs in the lab via a 3d printed “Skeleton” and by using stem cells from the patient. This is done by encouraging the stem cells to grow to be the organ cells and essentially form a new organ without the risk of immunorejection. My scientific/moral philosophy is that if we have such a means to create organs in the lab using cells from a patient, why even bother making pigs with human organs? It seems like it would be more difficult, expensive, and would have a higher chance of immunorejection than just using patient stem cells in the lab.

 

[FrenzyJen]

This was discussed on Catholic radio some months back, and they had a Catholic bioethicist on talking about this. He found no fault with it. Obviously, anything can be misused, and this opens doors to bad things, but nearly anything can. In this specific use, it is acceptable.

 

[BornInMarch]

Unlike making gorilla-human soldiers, this is clearly borne from good will and a desire to heal the sick - so the motivation itself is good. I think in this case it’s ‘just’ growing an entirely-human organ in an otherwise entirely-porcine pig.

All the same it is nothing like growing an organ for transplant in a petri dish in a lab (I’m sure all the scientists involved would rather do that but I guess we don’t know how yet!), so even if it doesn’t disgust me it does disturb me. It seems the height of arrogance to mess with the building-blocks and mechanisms of life like this, even when it’s for an entirely good purpose - much like IVF; we can all deeply sympathise with couples who desire children and can’t have them, but such a process however well meaning shouldn’t be tolerated morally.

“messing with the building-blocks and mechanisms of life” is literally the basis for ALL human progress. Go to a farm or a ranch and look at what’s inside - no pig in nature is as fat as the ones in the farms, and no cow in nature eats wheat. In nature most fruits are smaller and less colorful and contain less sugar.

God gave us dominion over every living thing upon the earth. That should reasonably be taken to include permission to mix and match them.

I consider IVF wrong, but not for any issue of “nature” or “abomination”. My objection to IVF is for more practical purposes - it results in less children being adopted.

 

[mikekle]

“messing with the building-blocks and mechanisms of life” is literally the basis for ALL human progress. Go to a farm or a ranch and look at what’s inside - no pig in nature is as fat as the ones in the farms, and no cow in nature eats wheat. In nature most fruits are smaller and less colorful and contain less sugar.

God gave us dominion over every living thing upon the earth. That should reasonably be taken to include permission to mix and match them.

I consider IVF wrong, but not for any issue of “nature” or “abomination”. My objection to IVF is for more practical purposes - it results in less children being adopted.

Do you not think if we had the ability today, many would be very happy to crank out human beings on a mass production assembly line?

The only reason why this is not happening yet, is because we are not quite there technologically, once that is achieved (and it will be at some point if we keep going at our current rate), it will be a HUGE issue, there will be those who agree with making as many as possible, like factory owners (for cheap labor), to staff a military, to do things no one else wants to do, etc? Likewise, there will be those who oppose it and consider it ‘playing God’.

They will argue, why should my son or daughter go fight and possibly die in war when science can create human beings in a lab that have no ‘mother or father’ (in the sense we think anyway).

I think we are getting very close to them being able to do these kinds of things, definitely within the next 50-100 yrs. The only thing I question is whether God will step in to intervene or let us go down this road unobstructed.