Hybrid embryos get go-ahead

Hybrid embryos get go-ahead

www.guardian.co.uk

"But what we're talking about here are cells on a dish not a foetus. We're talking about something that looks like sago under the microscope. And it's illegal to ever turn these cells into a living being."

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.dh.g ov.uk

Well, I know that they have "rules" and "guidelines" when dealing with such technology to preserve "moral integrity". My question is this. Should we really be worried about this? i mean, they are not just going to take off from here and start to develop some type of hybrid "slave race" that humanity could just exploit. They are not going to take off from here and create beasts that can be used as weapons of war. Are they?

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

It's the religous side of America for the most part who is actually against this. "You can't play God, Allah, or what ever higher being(s) you believe in." Some believe think that by messing in this technology it could potentialy lead to places we don't want to go, I.E. cloning, making new speices, even making a "Super Race" of what ever.

Is a super race so bad though? Not of humans, but of certain animals. Better meat, reproduce faster, more wool, or anything we use animals for. It would make it more efficent, we have already done it to our plants and veggies, why not our animals?

Ok, so you think God, or whatever deity is one of the resons keeping this technology from advancing? As far as creating animals for better meat and overall production, don't you think there are alternate, more efficient ways in achieving this? For example. I've heard that scientists are close to "growing" meat in a laboratory. Imagine, edible meat tissue in a laboratory. Vegeterians will have a field day.

"With a single cell, you could theoretically produce the world's annual meat supply. And you could do it in a way that's better for the environment and human health.

"In the long term, this is a very feasible idea," said Jason Matheny of the University of Maryland, part of the team whose research has been published in the Tissue Engineering journal.

Source

What benefit would come of mixing human cells with animal cells?( In the sense that they would have better production outputs.) Giving it a "better" brain to reason? Higher cognitive abilities? Speach ability?

edit= Do we really need to keep exploiting animals this way?

[edit on 17-5-2007 by souls]

There are often long term consequences for altering things from their natural state. They're in that state because they're perfect already, sometimes in ways we dont understand.
For example the bee situation recently, some people are saying that the enlarged hives due to human manipulation are making them more suseptible to disease.

Maybe growing meat this way would devoid if of some kind of process it needs to go through that we can only attain through it growing naturally, and we all get cancer years later as a result? I dont know.

But morally I don't have any problem with it..
I'm just weary of shortcuts.

Originally posted by T0by
There are often long term consequences for altering things from their natural state. They're in that state because they're perfect already, sometimes in ways we dont understand.

I agree with this to a certain extent, but why is it the adaption continues if the way things are now, in a sense are perfect? I think this is part of our evolution. We figure how to manipulate genetics, we figure how to travel in space (efficiently for colonization), we start to colonize other planets, and we develop species that can only survive in specific planetary environments to "collect" the resource that is only available on that planet.

But morally I don't have any problem with it..
I'm just weary of shortcuts.

Shortcuts...hmmphh. Weary...hmmph. True, shortcuts are not always good, but they can sure get you there in less time.

Yeah I agree with you also,
I was quite lazy in that post because i'm not really passionate enough about this subject to say much about it.

I think you get the drift of it though.
The evolution aspects did cross my mind as I was typing it, but that's a whole lot more typing.
I guess you could simply say that things are how they should be and to let them progress naturally? Maybe using the word perfect was too absolute.

Anyway I dont necessarily believe that myself. But it's a route you could take.
I'll just say that when altering things on genetic levels, you may upset balances that you don't understand and weren't aware of. It it works, then great
Morally it's fine with me. Pretty much everything is unless it hurts someone.