Posted on 11/27/2002 1:34:41 PM PST by VRWCmember
A group of American and Canadian biologists is debating whether to recommend stem cell experiments that would involve creating a human-mouse hybrid.
The goal would be to test lines of human embryonic stem cells for quality and potential usefulness in treating specific diseases. The best way to do that, some biologists say, is to see how the cells work in a living animal. For ethical reasons, the test cannot be performed in people.
But if the human stem cells were tested that way in mice, any animals born from the experiment would be chimeras -- organisms that are mixtures of two species' cells -- with human cells distributed throughout their body. Although the creatures would probably be mice with a few human cells obeying mouse rules, the outcome cannot be predicted. A mouse with a brain made entirely of human cells would probably disturb many people, as would a mouse that generated human sperm or eggs.
Dr. Irving Weissman, a stem cell expert at Stanford University, said that making mice with human cells could be "an enormously important experiment." But if done carelessly, the experiment could lead to outcomes that are "too horrible to contemplate," he said. As an extreme example, Weissman cited the possibility that a mouse making human sperm might accidentally be allowed to mate with a mouse that had made its eggs from human cells.
At least two biologists in the group discussing the experiment believe it could stir policy-makers to limit stem cell research.
Stem cells, from which all body tissues are generated, hold high promise as an all-purpose material for repairing many degenerative illnesses such as Parkinson's, cancer and heart disease.
The proposal for the experiment grew out of a Nov. 13 meeting at the New York Academy of Sciences.
Here are some predictions:
A person with a brain made entirely of snake cells would be an attorney.
A politician with a brain made entirely of rat cells would naturally be a democrat.
A weasle with a brain made of cells from a jackass would be Tom Daschle.
Oh, I don't know... Just as examples, think of how easy a mouse-sized millwright could get to trouble spots inside machinery. Or, think of the humans whose testicles or ovaries have been destroyed by cancer or its treatments...
It's called the Republican congressional leadership.
That may be. But, has he wanted to be the Supermouse?
An analysis of the marginal utility of studying for your Econ class and the opportunity cost of studying for other classes (in terms of Econ grade points lost) might indicate you should have diverted some of your studying time from other classes to economics.
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