Animal-Human Hybrids

This article sprung up controversy because it was based upon human-animal hybrids and the production of chimeras. I found it kind of creepy how the name we designated for these "creations" was chimera, which is a monstrous fire-breathing figure within Greek mythology...the creepy part being we are trying to re-create this but obviously not in the same way. Before reading this article I was indifferent to all of this, the ideas of cloning, stem cells, "chimeras", human-animal hybrids ect. mainly because I never really gave much thought to the idea. However after reading about it I have come to in some ways agree with Rifkin and his opposition in crossing species boundaries and that there are "other ways to advance medicine and human health besides going out into the strange, brave new world of chimeric animals." This whole concept of chimeras and blending species is completely fascinating while at the same time insane and kind of scary to think about. I can only wonder how far we are already able to go with this and don't even want to know how far we would go and will if we could. It's pretty scary to think of all the things that we are capable of doing and creating. Another good point the article brought up is that the worry surrounding all of this is on what the uses of these chimeras will be put to whether it be "problematic, risky, or dangerous," (Magnus) Another kind of creepy aspect were the questions that were raised which included : "What new subhuman combination should be produced and for what purpose? At what point would it be considered human? And what rights, if any, should it have?" These are questions that I never really thought about before but after reading the article they make perfect sense and can be frightening. However no matter how scary it can be, it is still pretty incredible what we can do and how we can change even a single species. In some ways, especially the ways we have used before like the transfer of faulty heart valves with those of cows and pigs, is acceptable and used often...but when I'm referring to scary I'm not referring to these types of procedures. While it is fun imagining hybrids and crazy creatures...I'm just not sure how far it should actually go...

Animal-Human Hybrids spark controversy article:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0125_050125_chimeras.html