Chinese Scientists are Creating Monsters

Scientists are inserting human genes or cells into animals in order to create hybrids for use in medical research (NOTE: This is one of the books you can get from the Whitley Strieber Collection, complete with an autographed bookplate).

Genetically engineered mice containing human DNA are already used for research into new drugs for diseases like cancer. Will this lead to a new generation of "monsters?" They may eventually do things like inserting human brain cells into primates in order to create apes that can talk.

Researchers say that new rules are needed in order to control this process. In Yahoo News, Ben Hirschler reports that, "Chinese scientists have already introduced human stem cells into goat fetuses and US researchers have studied the idea of creating a mouse with human brain cells–though they have not actually done so."

Hirschler quotes medical geneticist Martin Bobrow as saying, "Where people begin to worry is when you get to the brain, to the germ (reproductive) cells, and to the sort of central features that help us recognize what is a person, like skin texture, facial shape and speech."

He quotes psychiatrist Christopher Shaw as saying, "If you come home and your parrot says ‘Who’s a pretty boy?’ that’s one thing. But if your monkey says it that’s something else."

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