THE CHIMERA
AN END TO HUMAN VALUES?

It has been established at the dawn of man’s dominance on the earth that we can barely tolerate those we view as different. The external appearance of a man or creature unlike his fellows is often ridiculed, hated or pitied. We have the case of almost anyone who appears more fragile or vulnerable as a strong demonstration of human nature. It is usually not the highest standard of behaviour homo sapiens or other species demonstrate to the weak. Dr. Konrad Lorenz, animal behaviourist contends that this is the reason individuals behave in a swaggering or misleading way when they are injured, uncertain or feeling emotionally vulnerable.

We have created cloned life forms which have typically had miserable lives marked by early decrepitude and death. Dolly the cloned sheep did not have a happy or long life. Cells, unfortunately, when cloned are of a certain age, and they transmit this age/cellular memory to the new Frankenstein progeny that is created. These first successful forays into playing God were conducted in the UK.

Similarly, the UK is now greenlighting the creation of Chimera embryos (human and animal combinations). They contend that this experimentation will create solutions to disease, better hosts to study and a more realistic model on which to test drugs, vaccines etc.

Having established that is is okay to cross a baboon with a game show host, the possibilities are endless. We are in a precarious position. If a corporation further convinces someone who owns the formula for a giraffe human who can work high rigging buildings, what is to stop some enterprising, and a little crazy private interest from pursuing this end?

The rigors of real medical ethics clearly point to inter species combos as dangerous and potentially devastating. Even the inculcation of foods, say by Campbell foods, with bug DNA infused into their crops for their SMART FOOD@ products spells trouble. Scientists have predicted exactly what is happening as a result of a our Rubik’s cube approach to use of our knowledge of gene splicing. Cross species disease, more and stronger mutating strains of common disease, and an unpredictable future, as the results of reckless species-tampering continues.

The reason the UK allowed this research was primarily because of the work of two scientists. The following is the list of signatories supporting Chimera research.

List of Signatories to the letter to the Times
Nobel Laureates
Dr Tim Hunt Cancer Research UK,
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2001
Sir John Sulston Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002
Sir Paul Nurse Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2001
Leaders of Organisations
Professor Sir Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society
Baroness Professor Susan
Greenfield
Director, Royal Institution
Aisling Burnand Chief Executive, Bioindustries Association
Dr Richard Dyer Chief Executive, Biosciences Federation
Dr Peter Braude Chair of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Scientific Advisory Committee
Allan Pacey Honorary Secretary of the British Fertility Society
Dr Tony Calland Chair of the BMA Medical Ethics Committee
Dr Marilyn Robertson Director, Scottish Stem Cell Network
Social scientists, legal academics and medical ethicists
Baroness Onora O’Neill Member of House of Lords Select Committee on Stem Cell
Research
Professor Julian Savalescu Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics in the Philosophy Faculty at
the University of Oxford.
Raanan Gillon Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics, Imperial College
London
Hazel McHaffie Former Deputy Director of Research in the Institute of Medical
Ethics Member and current member of the Governing body
Professor Jonathan
Montgomery,
Professor of Health Care Law, University of Southampton
Professor John Harris Sir David Alliance Professor of Bioethics and member of the
BMA Medical Ethics Committee
Dr Len Doyal Emeritus Professor of Medical Ethics
Barts. and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
Queen Mary, University of London
Dr Graham Clayden
Reader in Paediatrics at Kings College London, Honorary
Consultant Paediatrician and Member of the Governing Board
of the Institute of Medical Ethics
Professor Martin Richards Centre for Family Research , University of Cambridge
Professor Sheila McLean Director, Institute of Law and Ethics in Medicine
Scientists
Professor Marcus Pembrey
Professor of Paediatric Genetics at the Institute of Child Health
Geneticist and Chairman, Progress Educational Trust
Professor David Whittingham Emeritus Professor, St George’s Medical School and Chair of
Trustees, Progress Educational Trust
Dr Fred Kavalier Writer and Primary Care Geneticist, Guy’s and St Thomas’
Hospital NHS Trust
Prof. Christopher F. Higgins Director MRC Clinical Sciences Centre
Anne McLaren DBE FRS Wellcome Principal Research Associate, The Wellcome
Trust/CR UK Gurdon Institute
University of Cambridge
Dr Robin Lovell-Badge Head of Developmental Genetics at the MRC National
Institute for Medical Research in London
Dr Stephen Minger Stem cell researcher, King’s College London
Professor Chris Shaw Stem cell researcher, King’s College London
Prof Ian Wilmut Co-Creator of Dolly the sheep, stem cell researcher,
Edinburgh University
Dr Lyle Armstrong Stem cell researcher, Newcastle University
Prof Alison Murdoch Stem cell researcher, Newcastle University
Clinicians
Professor W F Blakemore Professor of Neuropathology, University of Cambridge,
Member of the Committee for the Donaldson Report into Stem
Cell Research
Professor Dian Donnai Professor of Medical Genetics, Academic Unit of Medical
Genetics, University of Manchester
Member of the Committee for the Donaldson Report into Stem
Cell Research,
Professor Anthony J Pinching
Associate Dean for Cornwall & Professor of Clinical
Immunology, Peninsula Medical School
Dr Mark G Brennan
Head of Division and Senior Lecturer in Clinical Education,
Kent Institute of Medicine and Health Sciences
David T Baird
Emeritus Professor of Reproductive Endocrinology
Centre for Reproductive Biology, University of Edinburgh
Peers
Professor Lord Robert Winston Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies, Imperial College,
London; writer and broadcaster
Lord Robert May Former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and
former President of the Royal Society
Lord Walton Former President of the BMA, Royal Society of Medicine,
GMC and World Federation of Neurology
Lord Jenkin Former Secretary of State for Health, 1979/81
Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Member of House of Lords Select Committee on Stem Cell
Research
Baroness Perry of Southwark Member of House of Lords Select Committee on Stem Cell
Research
Lord Dick Taverne Chairman, Sense About Science
MPs
Bob Spink MP (Conservative) Member of House of Commons Science & Technology Select
Committee
Dr Ian Gibson MP (Labour) Former chair of the House of Commons Science &
Technology Select Committee
Dr Evan Harris MP (Lib Dem) Member of the House of Commons Science & Technology

An article and the white paper which promoted Chimera research was primarily supported by scientists and large corporate pharmaceutical companies.

The contention is that if we go beyond the embryo stage, cruel practices such as makeup and chemical testing can be conducted on the not-human, but more human Chimera species.

It occurs to me that we have, over generations wiped out whole species, enslaved others, cruelly test our toxic and unperfected products on unwilling animal life. Now we think that inventing genetically spliced, faded species, more like us than unlike us is the solution. Someone should read a little science fiction, The Time Machine by HG Wells would be a good start. The Island of Dr. Moreau, the chaser.