15% human, 85% sheep, 100% creepy!
Now scientists create a sheep that’s 15% human – MailOnSunday.co.uk: Scientists have created the world’s first human-sheep chimera – which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs.
The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells – and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.
But the development is likely to revive criticisms about scientists playing God, with the possibility of silent viruses, which are harmless in animals, being introduced into the human race.
Dr Patrick Dixon, an international lecturer on biological trends, warned: “Many silent viruses could create a biological nightmare in humans. Mutant animal viruses are a real threat, as we have seen with HIV.”
Animal rights activists fear that if the cells get mixed together, they could end up with cellular fusion, creating a hybrid which would have the features and characteristics of both man and sheep. But Prof Zanjani said: “Transplanting the cells into foetal sheep at this early stage does not result in fusion at all.”
No worries, there’s always Edward and Alphonse Elric to take care of those chimeras. ;)
I am sure the anti science (religious or hippy) crowd will love this.
I hate people that hate advancement. I want GMO food, I want my replacement heart to match me 100% and come from a sheep.
#1, Really?, I wonder why they aren’t using baboons or some other primate. Would be too much like Planet of the Apes?
Perhaps it would be Planet of the Sheep, although there are a lot of people that think we already are sheep.
Yes, yes, but what we all want to know is, are the sheep good looking?
I just don’t understand the significance of this story — the majority of the U.S. population are already sheep. Nothing to see here!
We wouldn’t have to worry about creating organ donor animals if their wasn’t some opposition to experimental human cloning. We could clone our own organs as needed and not have to worry about these abominations.
The first thought that occured to me is that this is some ploy to make it okay for some sheep herders to well… Become intimate with their animals. They’ll have to pass a law like the age of consent but instead of an age threshold they’ll have minimum gene percentages to be able to give consent…
So what is your cutoff percent for eating a sheep/human hybrid? 15%, 25%, 50%? Personally I would not eat sheep that was more than 50% human (especially if I was related to the donor), but thats just me.
Lemme guess, the 15% human part of the sheep has got something to do with the shape of its genitals.
Wow, John watches Full Metal Alchemist!
#9, Nope, just me. I don’t think he even knows what that is. 😉
I baaaahLeave that this baaaahsheep story is full of baaaahullshit. There isn’t anything baaahrong with interspecies mixing.
Goatboy
So they are making a satyr? Meh.
Call me when they finish with the nymph and succubus.
That’s why cowboys wear boots. It tells the sheep’s rear legs to stay put.
Schools will soon begin wrestling with the really tough questions, such as “What’s the minimum percentage of human cells for my prom date?”
There are just too many baaaaaaaad jokes.
Grow your own Bush voters.
To those who would advocate forging ahead blindly with science without consideration given to ethical or moral issues, please at least stop to think for a moment:
What percentage of “human” makes a human?
If you kill a sheep with some human parts, are you committing murder? Perhaps a percentage of a murder?
Can 50% humans vote? What about 98% 25%?
A person can’t marry an animal, but can a person marry a part human part animal?
Is eating a 95% sheep / 5% human cannibalism?
It’s not an obstruction of science to ask these questions. The very fabric of our society is based largely on being able to define who/what has liberty and who/what can be made property. Hundreds of science fiction stories have told us time and again – just because something _can_ be done, does not mean that it _should_ be done.
I’ve been complaining about sheeple in the Seventh-day Adventist church for about 10 years now. Perhaps this technology isn’t new. It could explain some rather odd behavior.
Grow your own Bush voters.
Get over yourself. Bush is done in less then 2 years he doesn’t need voters any more.
Patrick asks some of the questions that popped into my head when I saw this in the Times of London.
I love lamb….but not on the hoof(i’m not scottish or welsh thank you)….but what happens if this gets out of the lab and we suddenly are faced with partial human sheep….can we eat them???…..or do we have to give them hospitlization and food stamps????
#19
And that’s the frightning thing, if the probabilities show that the next president is going to be a democrat then he going to screw things up way more than they are.
21 – I don’t see how s/he could.
Anyhow, this is hardly the first time for such research. The Kiwis decided back in 2001 to allow mixing human genes into cattle.
http://tinyurl.com/ypty57
There was some speculation at the time that McDonald’s was sponsoring the research but so far as I know it hasn’t been proved.
Yes! Yes! I love you guys! The sheep jokes are kinda clever IMO.
Grow your own Bush voters, ROFL.
If I eat a lamb chop from one of these creatures, does that make me a cannibal?
Oh yes!!!!
I want claws and wings!!!
[ ]’s
I wish they’d stop cloning those goddam sheep. Soon we won’t be able to tell any of them apart.
Apparently Texans have come up with a new use for sheep – wool!
they dont even look remotly human they look like a cross of sheep and dog
if they would stop playing with wierd shit
then we wouldnt have those creepy half breeds
they make me want to puke
how come im the only one who ever wrights any thing am i the only one who thinks this is moraly WRONG
this is fukin bull start writing