Human Brain Cells in Sheep and Mice

[rastell]

Scientists are placing human brain cells in mammals without knowing the consequences. Their answer to the question “What are the effects” is merely that if they see signs of human behavior in any of the animals, they will kill them. This leads to the conculsion that they feel the animals might “think” as humans.

The following article is not from an unknown conservative website. It was placed on CNN’s website yesterday. In it New York Medical College professor Stuart Newman is quoted as saying:
"The boundary is going to push further into larger animals. That’s just asking for trouble."

cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/04/29/human.animal.mixing.ap/index.html

 

[sarcophagus]

This is what I am going through school for. We have to take 2 ethics courses each semester for 4 years to ensure that we fully understand the morality behind the science. Ethics is a new thing in this field and though placing human brain cells in animals, where we can study them, alter them and figure out causes of neurological diseases such as alzhiemers and parkinsons. However, this must be done with the utmost sensitivity to ethics. Doing these things “just to see what it does” is completely irresponsible and must either be a misquote by the reporter or something heinous on the researcher’s part. The chances of the mice and sheep beginning to think like human’s is slim to none.

BTW, when i graduate, my feild of choice is pharmaceuticals, not cloning or stem cells.

 

[abcdefg]

Guess where humans will be if we clone a T-Rex and put some human brain cells in it

 

[rastell]

sarcophagus:

This is what I am going through school for. We have to take 2 ethics courses each semester for 4 years to ensure that we fully understand the morality behind the science. Ethics is a new thing in this field and though placing human brain cells in animals, where we can study them, alter them and figure out causes of neurological diseases such as alzhiemers and parkinsons. However, this must be done with the utmost sensitivity to ethics. Doing these things “just to see what it does” is completely irresponsible and must either be a misquote by the reporter or something heinous on the researcher’s part. The chances of the mice and sheep beginning to think like human’s is slim to none.

BTW, when i graduate, my feild of choice is pharmaceuticals, not cloning or stem cells.

This article has some interesting points:
http://www.greens.org/s-r/19/19-08.html

For example:
"If human genes were successfully introduced into plants, their transgenic pollen could contaminate neighboring fields. Despite industry propaganda denying the likelihood of such “genetic pollution,” it has happened repeatedly… Unlike cars with exploding gas tanks, genetic alterations cannot be recalled. Human genes introduced into potatoes or any other crop could become a permanent part of that species. "
"Some have challenged my saying that ‘human genes are quite different from other genes’ with the objection that over 99% of human genes are shared with chimpanzees. This ignores the fact that even if there were no more than 0.1% of human genes which were not shared with other species, it is precisely this 0.1% which the genetic engineers are targeting for transplantation. A non-reductionist world view understands that genes interact with each other to produce activity which cannot be explained by analyzing them in isolation-only a tiny number of distinctly human genes may be necessary for interaction with other genes to produce the unique aspects of humanness. "

 

[sarcophagus]

rastell,

That article has very good points. It is true about the cross-pollution. That is why there is such a fuss over GMO’s (oh…genetically modified organisms). However, not many studies have been done (too early) to deny or defend whether this happening will create a negative response.

Now, I may be wrong about this one but, genes in any species are coded by DNA sequences to do a certain task (or in some cases, more than one). For example, a human gene that tells the body to produce more sweat can be altered to sweat constantly (or not at all). Now, if this gene were to be spliced into a rat’s genome, the gene will “interact with it” but this interaction won’t change what the gene does. For example, the rat won’t sweat nuclear waste it will just sweat more.

They’ve recently produced a GM goat that contains spider silk in it’s milk. This was done by isolating the gene that creates the silk in a spider and splicing it into the goat’s genome. By doing this, the goat produces the silk however, the goat does not have 8 legs and a million eyeballs like a spider.