For the first time ever scientists have created embryos made up of cells from man and monkeys, according to a report from NPR.
These embryos were designed to try to discover new ways to produce organs for individuals that need transplants, said the international research team, which was described in more detail in the scientific journal Cell.
The experiments have, however, raised concerns.
My first question is: Why? I think the public is going to be concerned, and I am as well, that we’re just kind of pushing forward with science without having a proper conversation about what we should or should not do.
Kirstin Matthews. A fellow for science and technology at Rice University’s Baker Institute.
Regardless, the scientists and the rest of the team defended the experiment.
This is one of the major problems in medicine — organ transplantation. The demand for that is much higher than the supply.
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte. A professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory of the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in La Jolla, Calif., and a co-author of the Cell study.
I don’t see this type of research being ethically problematic. It’s aimed at lofty humanitarian goals.
Insoo Hyun. A bioethicist at Case Western Reserve University and Harvard University.
Hyun notes that thousands every year die in the U.S. waiting for an organ transplant. In more recent years, some researchers in the United States and other nations have been injecting human stem cells into farm animals such as pigs and sheep into their embryos in order to see if they would eventually transform into man’s organs.
These tests have been unsuccessful. Belmonte and other scientists from China and elsewhere joined up to try a different experiment. The scientists injected 25 induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) from humans into the embryos of Macaque Monkeys, which the report says are more closely related to man than that of sheep or pigs.
Just after one day after the injections, the researchers detected that the human cells were growing in over 130 embryos, and were able to study them for 19 days. This better taught the scientists how animal and human cells communicate, which they believe will help them discover new ways to grow organs for transplantation.
This knowledge will allow us to go back now and try to re-engineer these pathways that are successful for allowing appropriate development of human cells in these other animals. We are very, very excited.
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte
Mixed embryos are given the designation of chimeras, named after the fire-breathing creature from Greek Mythology that is part lion, goat, and serpent.
Our goal is not to generate any new organism, any monster. And we are not doing anything like that. We are trying to understand how cells from different organisms communicate with one another.
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte
Belmonte hopes this research could lead to new developments and insights into the early development of man, including aging and underlying causes of cancer and other diseases.
This work is an important step that provides very compelling evidence that someday when we understand fully what the process is we could make them develop into a heart or a kidney or lungs.
Dr. Jeffrey Platt. A professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Michigan, who is doing related experiments but was not involved in the new research.
However, some concerns have been raised that this research might be used to actually try grow an actual baby from these embryos, and that the brains of these potential subjects would be more animalistic.
Should it be regulated as human because it has a significant proportion of human cells in it? Or should it be regulated just as an animal? Or something else? At what point are you taking something and using it for organs when it actually is starting to think and have logic?
Kirstin Matthews
Others are concerned that this may produce animals that are carrying man’s seed or eggs in them.
Nobody really wants monkeys walking around with human eggs and human sperm inside them. Because if a monkey with human sperm meets a monkey with human eggs, nobody wants a human embryo inside a monkey’s uterus.
Hank Greely, a Stanford University bioethicist who co-wrote an article in the same issue of the journal that critiques the line of research while noting that this particular study was ethically done.
I don’t think we’re on the edge of beyond the Planet of the Apes. I think rogue scientists are few and far between. But they’re not zero. So I do think it’s an appropriate time for us to start thinking about, ‘Should we ever let these go beyond a petri dish?’
Hank Greely
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
[27] Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. [28] And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD. [29] In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. [30] But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.Jeremiah 31:27-30
I am sure this will new research will be used to explain away the evolutionary theory in the minds of Christ haters that think they are playing God.
But beyond just that, the pessimist in me sides with the scientists that are raising caution. All it takes are some mad scientists to create a “Frankenstein.” Seeing this study gives me some validation of some potential theories I have had for years.
When I was in high school I remember hearing stories of one my teachers, who technically could have be classified as a science teacher, was referring to these types of studies and trying to grow different parts of man and eventually a full-blown person. That got me thinking.
The WinePress recently did a report on a recently confirmed “alien” sighting, and in there I explained what these ET’s really are: spirits – angels.
[1] And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, [2] That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. [3] And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. [4] There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. [5] And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.Genesis 6:1-5
The sons of God in the Old Testament are in reference to the angels, and they were mating with women creating a hybrid creature of giants. So it is not too much of a stretch to think that man could do something similar, and mingle the seed of man with the seed of a beast.
If these scientists can create a full-blown man, or a hybrid creature, they’d have themselves a great alibi for aliens from outer space that the media could float out. Wouldn’t that start a fiasco? This would of course would be controlled by a devil spirit, as a man made by God must have a soul and a spirit. Or perhaps, with the rise of AI, these mad scientists could program their new Frankenstein with AI to make a more legitimate autonomous creature.
On top of all this, I think of the potential of how this could relate to the antichrist rule and reign. Without getting into a great discourse, I believe that the devil that was Judas Iscariot will be that man of sin, the antichrist himself (Rev 17:8). Jesus directly stated that Judas was in fact a devil (John 6:66-70); and when Judas died the Bible says he went to his own place, implying that it was not the grave (Acts 1:25). But I question where this body would come from. Perhaps, and this is just a theory, a body will be prepared for this spirit to possess and rule as the antichrist. The Bible does after all call him a beast.
[1] And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. [2] And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.Revelation 13:1-2
But as I said, this is just a theory. I could be taking this way too far. Whatever the case, this study is something to track and see where it goes.
[31] While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee. [32] And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. [33] The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws. Daniel 4:31-33
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