{"id":24817,"date":"2016-08-08T05:45:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T09:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=24817"},"modified":"2016-08-07T23:07:36","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T03:07:36","slug":"a-pig-with-a-human-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/a-pig-with-a-human-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"A pig with a human brain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The ethical issues involved in combining human DNA with animal DNA are so great\u2013and so obvious\u2013that the federal government at first refused to\u00a0fund those kinds of experiments. \u00a0But now, reports Timothy Willard, \u00a0the National Institute for Health has rescinded the ban.<\/a><\/p>\n

Willard reports on the kind of experimentation your tax dollars will be going towards: \u00a0A researcher from the University of California, Davis, that is planning to inject human embryonic stem cells into a pig embryo. \u00a0The fetus will then be implanted into the womb of a pig, who will give birth to the human\/pig organism (known as a \u201cchimera\u201d for the mythological monsters who are combinations of various animals).<\/p>\n

\n

The researcher says he is doing this for the universal excuse of some day curing disease and making more compatible organs to transplant. \u00a0But he openly acknowledges what can go wrong.<\/p>\n

Since he can\u2019t really control what those human stem cells might turn into, if two adult chimeras mate, the result might be a a human baby with a pig as his or her parents. \u00a0Or we might have a pig with a human brain and human consciousness.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t worry, he says. \u00a0If anything goes wrong, he will abort the fetus. \u00a0This is apparently what convinced the NIH that the experiments can be ethical.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From NPR<\/a>, via Timothy Willard<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The uncertainty is part of what makes the work so controversial.<\/strong> Ross and other scientists conducting these experiments can\u2019t know exactly where the human stem cells will go. Ross hopes they\u2019ll only grow a human pancreas. But they could go elsewhere, such as to the brain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have pigs with partly human brains you would have animals that might actually have consciousness like a human,\u201d Newman says. \u201cIt might have human-type needs. We don\u2019t really know.\u201d<\/p>\n

That possibility raises new questions about the morality of using the animals for experimentation. Another concern is that the stem cells could form human sperm and human eggs in the chimeras.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf a male chimeric pig mated with a female chimeric pig, the result could be a human fetus developing in the uterus of that female chimera,\u201d Newman says. Another possibility is the animals could give birth to some kind of part-human, part-pig creature.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the concerns that a lot of people have is that there\u2019s something sacrosanct about what it means to be human expressed in our DNA,\u201d saysJason Robert<\/a>, a bioethicist at Arizona State University. \u201cAnd that by inserting that into other animals and giving those other animals potentially some of the capacities of humans that this could be a kind of violation \u2014 a kind of, maybe, even a playing God.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ross defends what his work. \u201cI don\u2019t consider that we\u2019re playing God or even close to that,\u201d Ross says. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to use the technologies that we have developed to improve peoples\u2019 life.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ethical issues involved in combining human DNA with animal DNA are so great\u2013and so obvious\u2013that the federal government at first refused to\u00a0fund those kinds of experiments. \u00a0But now, reports Timothy Willard, \u00a0the National Institute for Health has rescinded the ban. Willard reports on the kind of experimentation your tax dollars will be going towards: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,27,30,33,40,44],"tags":[4718,906,4719],"class_list":["post-24817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics","category-life-issues","category-medicine","category-nature","category-science","category-technology","tag-chimeras","tag-genetic-engineering","tag-human-animal-hybrids"],"yoast_head":"\nA pig with a human brain<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The ethical issues involved in combining human DNA with animal DNA are so great--and so obvious--that the federal government at first refused to\u00a0fund\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/a-pig-with-a-human-brain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A pig with a human brain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ethical issues involved in combining human DNA with animal DNA are so great--and so obvious--that the federal government at first refused to\u00a0fund\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/a-pig-with-a-human-brain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-08T09:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-08-08T03:07:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/a-pig-with-a-human-brain\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/a-pig-with-a-human-brain\/\",\"name\":\"A pig with a human brain\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-08T09:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-08T03:07:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"The ethical issues involved in combining human DNA with animal DNA are so great--and so obvious--that the federal government at first refused to\u00a0fund\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/a-pig-with-a-human-brain\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/a-pig-with-a-human-brain\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2016\/08\/a-pig-with-a-human-brain\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A pig with a human brain\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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