Paging Dr. Moreau
Straight out of a science fiction story, a researcher has created animal/human hybrids for medical testing. The University of Nevada-Reno scientist has a flock of sheep, some with semi-human hearts, livers, brains, and other organs. He even has a plan to put a pregnant ewe to sleep to examine the brain of the fetus, which has had human brain cells injected into it a few months back.
Even crazier, his research is firmly grounded in new ethical guidelines from the National Academies of Science.
In fact, the Academies' report endorses research that co-mingles human and animal tissue as vital to ensuring that experimental drugs and new tissue replacement therapies are safe for people.
We've heard for years of using animal parts in humans, such as using pig heart valves to replace human heart valves, and scientists have used human cells in animals for even longer, like growing ears on the backs of mice. But it seems now, we're taking it a step further, and it's getting just a bit creepy.
Now the question is raised: What if the human consciousness got trapped inside a sheep's head? Don't worry, the good doctors have thought of that.
The "idea that human neuronal cells might participate in 'higher order' brain functions in a nonhuman animal, however unlikely that may be, raises concerns that need to be considered," the academies report warned.
Stanford University wants to make mice with brains made almost wholly of human cells, which they say would help them probe the depths of our minds even further. They said they will destroy any mice that exhibit humanlike behavior. And back at UN-Reno, Dr. Esmail Zanjani wants to further human-animal hybrid research, for the goals of creating human tissue and organs for transplantation, and test more experimental drugs.
Zanjani is most optimistic about the sheep that grow partially human livers after human stem cells are injected into them while they are still in the womb. Most of the adult sheep in his experiment contain about 10 percent human liver cells, though a few have as much as 40 percent, Zanjani said.
Zanjani must first ensure no animal diseases would be passed on to patients. He also must find an efficient way to completely separate the human and sheep cells, a tough task because the human cells aren't clumped together but are rather spread throughout the sheep's liver.
Zanjani and other stem cell scientists defend their research and insist they aren't creating monsters or anything remotely human.
"We haven't seen them act as anything but sheep," Zanjani said.
More and more, we're starting to see early sci-fi writers as H.G. Wells and Jules Verne predicted the future correctly. Is it not too far off before we hear the chant of "Four legs good, two legs bad!" from our humanimal friends?
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