Chimeras are organisms that are made up of the cells of two distinct species, in this case humans and monkeys.
For instance, if this hybrid embryo was placed in the womb of a monkey, it could possibly grow into a new kind of an animal.
In this study, the monkey embryos containing human stem cells stayed alive and grew outside the body for a period of 19 days.
Rationales for Chimeric Research
It offers scientists a powerful tool for research and medicine, advancing current understanding about early human development, disease onset and progression and ageing.
It could help in drug evaluation and address the critical need for organ transplantation.
Chimeric tools provide a new platform to study how certain diseases arise.
For instance, a particular gene that is associated with a certain type of cancer could be engineered in a human cell. Researchers could then study the course of disease progression using the engineered cells in a chimeric model.
Human-monkey chimeras could be created to study parts of the brain, for instance, so we can better understand Alzheimer’s Disease.
Another goal is to grow human organs for transplantation by “deleting” the relevant organ from the animal’s genetic instructions, and replacing it with human stem cells to fill the developmental niche.
Associated Ethical Concerns
Survival of Hybrid Animals
Some rare hybrid animals exist naturally due to unintentional cross breeding between animals of different species.
In 2014, a rare hybrid animal called “Geep” was born in an Irish farm. Geep was a hybrid between a goat and a sheep, a result of the two mating.
Generally, different species don’t cross-breed and if they do, their offspring don’t survive for long.
Reproduction of Hybrid Animals
Mules are another example of a hybrid animal that are the result of mating between a female horse and a male donkey.
While mules can live a long healthy life, they are infertile which means that they cannot have offspring of their own.
Societal Acceptance
After further research into chimeras it could be used as a source of organs for humans.
As these chimeras would still be a mix of human and non-human cells, this thought that makes many uncomfortable.
Injustice to other organisms
Chimeric research raises “the philosophical and ethical issue of moral status: how should we treat other life forms?”.
Chimera research has the potential to worsen injustice against animals and also point out the fairness in using part-human animals to meet human needs.
Moral Revulsion
If pigs or monkeys are eventually developed with humanised features, it could cause major public opprobrium, perhaps setting back public acceptance of science significantly.
Moral status
Moral status is the concept of treating life forms according to their capacities.
In the future, some human-nonhuman chimeras could develop mental capacities between ordinary animals and humans. That presents a huge challenge for determining their moral status and rights and obligations.
Recent work on “speciesism” makes a compelling case that we have wrongly assigned animals a lower moral status.
'Speciesism' is the idea that being human is a good enough reason for human animals to have greater moral rights than non-human animals.
Thus, human-nonhuman chimeras will probably be regarded as “lesser” than humans.
Hybrid futures
In future, chimera discoveries could give humans capacities found elsewhere in the animal kingdom, like a bat’s sonar.
If we accept moral status based on a creature’s capacities, such enhanced humans could one day be regarded as superior to us.
As we’re already struggling with issues of equality between human beings, it would seem we’re poorly prepared for the ethical challenges presented by future advances in chimera research.
Conclusion
Genetic modification like chimera studies continues to be a subject of major debate.
Production of hybrid animals is banned in India since 1985.
In developing countries like India, even genetically modified crops are a contentious topic.
Tampering with the genetic code in human beings is more controversial, as any such change can be passed down to future generations.
Government should develop policy that adequately addresses ethical challenges such as animal welfare, human dignity before giving a green signal to this sort of Research.
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