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Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

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Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#161
post #60

These chimeras pave the way for more accurate models of human biology and disease The goal, the team says, is to make better models for studying biological development, evolution, disease progression and treatments. "As we are unable to conduct certain types of experiments in humans, it is essential that we have better models to more accurately study and understand human biology and disease," Interestingly, the revie…

It seems contradictory to suggest at the same time that a) these hybrids might teach us that the line between humans and animals isn't as stark as a lot of people think, and b) these hybrids will not be human and therefore will be suitable for medical research that could not be ethically performed on "real" humans. If you buy the former, it seems to suggest we should be going in the opposite direction with the latter…

It's not a contradiction if you believe experiments on human embryos should also be deemed ethical.

In formal logical, that means it's not a contradiction, unless you've already ruled out that premise.

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#162
post #60

These chimeras pave the way for more accurate models of human biology and disease The goal, the team says, is to make better models for studying biological development, evolution, disease progression and treatments. "As we are unable to conduct certain types of experiments in humans, it is essential that we have better models to more accurately study and understand human biology and disease," Interestingly, the revie…

You're a layperson forming opinions about a topic you didn't even take the time to read about.

First, they didn't develop infants. This is a cell culture. There is no animal to "torture".

Second, we use animal models to understand critical problems in biology. This is sometimes the only way to conduct research. There are protocols in place to keep it as humane as possible.

Please don't step on the science for failing to see the big picture.

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#163

This is great news. Anything that advances science should be done. I don't necessarily understand those that are having a moral panic at this news.

"Ice-nine created in lab"

This is great news. Anything that advances science should be done. I don't necessarily understand those that are having a moral panic at this news.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_Cradle

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#164
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just how many women create a fetus and abort it in the name of science? Human embryos are not manufactured for experimentation. What you're talking about is completely orthogonal. Now, breeding/manufacturing animals for experiments is awful and morally complex--ethically unclear (at least to me). But the line must be drawn somewhere, and we can very easily draw it at manufacturing human-monkeys, human-pigs, or human-…

At what point does a thing become a human-thing? Imagine there was a way to copy a few human genes over to a mouse so that its immune system more closely resembled a human, but it was still, in every other respect, a mouse. Would it be a human-mouse?

At no single point, the brains, central nervous system, etc develop little by little.

When the baby gets out of womb, their eyes start to gain sight. They're practically unable to focus their vision after birth.

So, we have a quite good understanding on what happens at what week of pregnancy and when it is just biomass, and when it starts to have "structure".

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#166

This is great news. Anything that advances science should be done. I don't necessarily understand those that are having a moral panic at this news.

"Ice-nine created in lab" This is great news. Anything that advances science should be done. I don't necessarily understand those that are having a moral panic at this news. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_Cradle

Not sure what you're pointing out by reiterating my comment.

Regardless, very, very few things are inherently "evil" as in actively harming humanity. We got nuclear energy from the atomic bomb. If something like ice-nine were created, it is a fallacy to think that it is only negative in its effect, that no positives could be discovered of it in the future. In fact, it is bordering on "we might discover something bad so we should stop discovery of science in that field as a whole" which does not follow logically.

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#167

Awesome, love this bit mentioned: ``` “It is sometimes argued that … [the creation of part-human chimeras] will undermine an important moral view: that it matters, morally, which species we belong to,” the report reads. ”This argument assumes that we ought to preserve the view that boundaries between species are fixed, natural, and morally relevant, with full moral status reserved exclusively for humans. Yet even if…

>The first orks of the sixth World emerged during the Unexplained Genetic Expression in the year 2021 as either young humans changed to orks or ones born as orks from human parents. They are considered metahumans, like trolls, elves, and dwarfs. Orks are able to interbreed with humans and fellow metahumans. Despite this, their offspring will be of the race of only one of their parents. No half-breeds exist.

-Shadowrun RPG

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#168
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Alex Jones is an awful person. He lies about so much, some of it will end up being accidentally correct. Agreed. > What he says or thinks should be shunned by any decent human being, and he should not be brought up here. No. He should not be a taboo topic. Let it out in the open where rational people can see for themselves how crazy he is and make up their own minds. I really hate this whole cancel culture thing, I…

I don't care for cancel culture, too. That doesn't mean we can be selective about who and what we spend our limited time on Earth discussing. Not talking about a pathologically lying conspiracy theorist is good for efficiency and mental health. To each their own.

I barely knew Alex Jones existed before he was starting to get censored from all kinds of platforms. What was previously just a blip on the radar, censorship turned into a mainstream talking point.

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#169
post #49
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much brain capacity those terminated embryos have though??

How much brain capacity does a human adult have after a catastrophic brain injury or significant dementia? Are you sure you really want this to be the basis on which we decide the morality of terminating life?

On what basis should it be measured? I'd rather resources be allocated to someone with a potential future ahead of them.

Re: Human-monkey chimera embryos created in lab

#170
post #60

These chimeras pave the way for more accurate models of human biology and disease The goal, the team says, is to make better models for studying biological development, evolution, disease progression and treatments. "As we are unable to conduct certain types of experiments in humans, it is essential that we have better models to more accurately study and understand human biology and disease," Interestingly, the revie…

Did you finish reading the article? > After 10 days, there were 103 of these chimeric embryos remaining, but by day 19 only three still survived. After that, the embryos were terminated before they developed any further. Clusters of cells can't be 'tortured in a lab,' there are plenty of legitimate problems in the world to be outraged about but this really isn't one of them.

It's unethical.
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