Posted on 11/08/2017 8:00:33 AM PST by Red Badger
Stanford University bioethicist says as the lab rats become more human-like they may one day be 'entitled to some kind of respect'
TINY human brains injected into rats have sparked a major ethical debate among scientists worried it may give the rodents some type of human consciousness.
Esteemed science ethicists claim the experiments might reach a point where the test lab rats will be "entitled to some kind of respect".
Advances in science have allowed experts to connect tiny human brains with that of a rat.
To do this, they created clumps of cells that behave similarly to human brains called organoids.
Several labs have inserted those organoids into rat brains, connected them to blood vessels and successfully grown physical links.
Medical mag Stat reported that when scientists shone a light into a rat's eye or stimulated the brain regions involved in vision, that the neurons in the implanted organoid fired up.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesun.co.uk ...
I thought human chimeric experimentation was outlawed?
I remember seeing that as a kid.
It sacred the crap outta me!..................
I think that involves eggs and implantation of DNA and such.............
Mixing rat and human cells constitutes a chimera.
Love hamsters. Question, why are they giving rats “respect” when they don’t give pre-born humans respect? where did they get the brain tissue? Pre-born humans murdered by dismemberment?
Person, not rat..............
Will grow up to look like Count Orlok.
Great, that is what we really need - smarter rats
It doesn’t matter if it’s a person. Mixing two cells from different organisms is a chimera.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics)
Where are they getting these “human” brain cells to implant?
DC......................
This kind of stuff scares me. If you’re into it, I highly recommend a nifty bit of fiction published in 2015 entitled
“Mort(e)” by Robert Repino. You’ll never take your eyes off your pets after you finish the book.
Plenty of tiny little brains in Congress to go around. It doesn’t seem right to do that to mice, however, since they are already smarter than than the prospective donors.
Abbie Normal?
Ratitouille
I just pictured that South Park episode where Mr. Garrison is chasing a genetically engineered mouse..
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