Sheep That’s 15% Human
From Xinhuanet (China). Stephan Schwartz (from whose Schwartzreport this is taken) comments: “At one level this sounds like a wonderful breakthrough. But: at what point does a chimera like this become human? At what point does the human recipient become a sheep? Does it matter? Why?”
It doesn’t sound like a wonderful breakthrough to me. It sounds like one more example of scientists playing God, as if everything that could be done should be done, as if we were intellectually or morally qualified in any way to play God, as if these new techniques were likely to be kept under control. In these last days of this dying materialist civilization, it seems that all taboos are going to be broken either in the name of an insane science and technology — really, a form of tinkering — or, as usual, in the name of greed.
How hard is it to understand? There are some boundaries — such as those between species — that it is not safe to cross, regardless the good intentions of the researchers, regardless the promised benefits. It is one of the functions of a social moral code to protect such boundaries. As our social moral code has dissolved, so have all our safeguards. And the end is not yet.
Sheep That’s 15% Human
BEIJING — Scientists have created the world’s first human-sheep chimera — which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs, according to news report Monday.
The sheep have 15 percent human cells and 85 percent animal cells and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.
