Comments on: Manimal Planet

By: kudra pindari

kudra pindari — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:15:25 +0000

a little over a hundred thousand people waiting for organ transplants….
that is only about 0.0000150 % of the world’s population… but the risk of releasing -accidentally, a porcine endogenous retrovirus, which threatens the health of the 6.5 BILLION people on earth…through dangerous genetic blended mutants of animal/ human hybrids, now that makes sense.

How could this happen? PERV arises from hybrid cells.

I tend to agree with the wisdom of Sam Brownback-his expertise in genetic engineering of crops and livestock certainly brings awareness of the ethical and the potentially dangerous outcomes of bringing human and other animals’ genetic material together at this time in history, as we do not know the implications.

What is wrong with reviewing the risks of disease transmission and proposing preventative measures
before
proceeding?

Then who is to suffer when after the xenotransplantation products prove to be more dangerous than the initial disease?
In such a hurry to skip over common sense?

There are many other ethical questions which are not considered in this article.

By: Neal Hicks

Neal Hicks — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:12:26 +0000

Clearly some concerned Christian parent caught their kid watching “Fullmetal Alchemist” on Cartoon Network and sent a frantic message to Sen. Brownback that the evil plot of the homunculi and their chimeras must be stopped!

My Grandmother had Parkinsons and she used to think people in soap operas were talking about her behind her back. Don’t think the scenario I painted above is at all far-fetched.

I mean, really. Anyone who wastes so much as an instant of the time of the highest legislative body in the US with this rubbish should be instantly sacked.

Same for anyone who has real doubts about the theory of evolution, since we have been forcibly evolving domesticated animals to our needs for centuries. Nor does a former governor who thinks the world is 6k years old get to be President.

I really think it’s time for the thinking people of this nation to stop politely tolerating imbeciles. Religion, fine, have your religion. But don’t pretend it teaches you things about the non-spiritual that eclipses scientific inquiry. Such approaches leads to…well, for instance administrations that censor and edit scientific findings to meet their dispensationalist agendas.

By: Sandy Fackler

Sandy Fackler — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:11:03 +0000

Nice post, Sharon.

It seems to me that ethical scientists would be appalled at what Brownback’s bill would outlaw. It also seems to me that ethical scientists should/can/would be the ones to police what a handful of rogue scientists might try to do.

We really don’t need politicians dabbling in science. Why not just pass a bill that it is illegal to make a cent off of chimera research. That will be the end of that, and if it proves necessary to amend or repeal such a law later, that can be done.

As politicians get more greedy and more ignorant and uncaring (kind of like the population in general) we need to stop legislating their creationist beliefs.

By: sharon shadbolt

sharon shadbolt — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:00:30 +0000

I’m just an old woman, who’s father taught her that what made Americans different, was that they were intelligent individuals who join together for the benefit and advancement of the people and their society. To me, we seem to have become a people who fear anything that takes effort to learn and understand. We appear to prefer superstition over discovery. It does seem to me that science and discovery can’t move forward when blocked by fear and superstition. Perhaps it is just luck that Mr. Brownback was not present, as the early lifeforms of our world tried something novel, such as trying out the lands of Earth, instead of continuing to just swim around and around until the Earth’s final days. Hum; if that had happened, would there be a Mr. Brownback, ever?

By: Jaydee Hanson

Jaydee Hanson — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:22:14 +0000

Dr. Moreno neglects to mention that the National Academy of Sciences’ report Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research (2005) of which he was the co-chair specifically opposed the creation of certain kinds of human-animal chimeras. The revelant section from pages 124-125 is reproduced below. Moreover, several countries, including our neighbor to the North, Canada have approved legislation virtually identical to Brownback’s bill.

“(c) Research that should not be permitted at this time:

1. Research involving in vitro culture of any intact human embryo, regardless of derivation method, for longer than 14 days or until formation of the primitive streak begins, whichever occurs first.
2. Research in which hES cells are introduced into nonhuman primate blastocysts or in which any ES cells are introduced into human blastocysts.

In addition:

3. No animal into which hES cells have been introduced at any stage of development should be allowed to breed.”