What If Yale U’s 50% Human DNA Were All Dominant Traits???

[johnkarls]

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Originally posted by solutions » Sat Aug 06, 2016 9:54 am
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The original proposal for our 4/9/2008 meeting indicates that we first focused on Clone Rights (and viewed together Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johannson in The Island) for our June 2006 meeting, which is before we inaugurated this bulletin board.

A primary reason for re-visiting the topic on 4/9/2008 was an interview on MacNeil-Lehrer (which morphed into the PBS Newshour) of a Yale University Biology Professor who stated that he had succeeded in creating an animal whose DNA was 25% of the way from chimp to human (that is, for the DNA that is not shared by chimps and humans, he had substituted 25% human DNA for chimp DNA). He also reported that he was in the process of creating an animal whose DNA was 50% of the way from chimp to human. And that it was his intention to begin work on creating an animal whose DNA would be 75% of the way from chimp to human!!!

Gwen Ifill who conducted the interview, turned a blind eye to the obvious questions of how Yale’s in-process 50% Human-Chimp would compare to Hitler’s tests for Jewishness and the Old South’s tests for being classified as an African-American.

Gwen Ifill also failed to ask the most obvious question!!!

What would happen if the result of Yale’s 50% Human DNA & 50% Chimp DNA happens to produce an animal ALL OF WHOSE DOMINANT TRAITS ARE HUMAN and all of whose recessive traits are Chimp!!!

[Please see Section D of the following Discussion Outline for our 4/9/2008 meeting.]

Would Yale U be entitled to treat AS A LAB RAT this animal ALL OF WHOSE DOMINANT TRAITS ARE HUMAN???

Just like 4/9/2008 when we had no book on which to focus, there will be zillions of issues to discuss and zillions of news tidbits upon which we can draw.

Excelsior!!! [Which, for anyone who took 4 years of Latin, meant “Onwards And Upwards!!!”]


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Suggested Discussion Outline – 4/9/2008
Posted by johnkarls » Sun Apr 06, 2008 12:33 am

CLONE RIGHTS: INVOLUNTARY SOLDIERS, SEX SLAVES, HUMAN "LAB RATS" ETC.

A. Current "State of the Art"

A-1. Creating 100%-human-DNA animals from stem cells generated from skin cells.

A-2. Yale U's 25%/50%/75%/etc. human-DNA chimpanzees.

A-3. Newcastle U's 99.9% human-DNA cow embryos.

B. Legality of A-1 and A-2 for use as involuntary soldiers, sex slaves, human "lab rats" etc.

B-1. Creating 100%-human-DNA animals created from stem cells generated from skin cells for such purposes is probably legal outside Greece, Spain, Portugal, the U.K., Australia and a handful of states in the U.S.

B-2. Creating 25%/50%/75%/etc. human-DNA animals for such purposes is almost certainly legal outside the U.K.

C. Should 100%-human-DNA animals created from stem cells generated from skin cells have any constitutional/legal rights???

C-1. Should it make a difference whether the 100%-human-DNA animal is developed in the womb of a woman or an animal - or whether it can be developed to the stage of independent viability in a controlled laboratory environment???

C-2. What special safeguards will be needed due to the fact that there will probably be no friends or relatives to complain to the news media that such a 100%-human-DNA animal has been used as a "lab rat" etc???

D. Keeping in mind Hitler’s legal classifications that depended on % of Jewish blood and the American “Old South” legal classifications that depended on % of African-American blood, what should be the dividing line between which organisms are viewed as “human” and therefore deserving of constitutional/legal rights, and which organisms are viewed as “animal” and therefore deserving of only attention of the ASPCA (assuming medical research does not trump any animal rights).

D-1. Example 1 = An organism’s DNA is only 50% of the way from chimp to human, but 100% of its dominant traits are human and 100% of its recessive traits are chimp.

D-2. Example 2 = An organism’s DNA from the ankles up is 100% human, but it has chimp feet that are capable of grasping tree branches. What if this organism has its feet amputated and replaced by human-feet prosthetics???

D-3. Should “humanness” depend solely on the capability of the organism’s brain and, if so, what should be the threshold capability/capabilities for human status???

D-4. Should a single organism be permitted during its lifetime to “cross over” the divide as a result, for example, of gene therapy of its brain???

D-5. Should we “keep an eye out” for mutations or evolutionary developments that enable various organisms/species to “cross over” the divide to human status???

E. Are the existing U.K.-style restrictions on human cloning and human-animal creation (a 14-day limit on embryo development before destruction and no implantation of human-animal combos into either a human or animal womb) a reasonable balancing of ethical considerations against the needs of medical research???

E-1. Instead of a time limit, what about a limit based on number of cells or based on functional development (e.g. the beginning of a brain so that pain can be perceived)???

E-2. If there is such an E-1 relaxation of the limit, can we trust researchers who are motivated by greed and fame to police themselves???

F. International law – assuming that we (and the Brits after their Parliamentary debate next month) are unsuccessful in getting the United Nations to mandate international standards --

F-1. Should U.S. researchers and U.S. universities be permitted to maintain foreign facilities to house 25%/50%/75%/etc. human-DNA animals and/or 100%-human-DNA animals created from stem cells created from skin cells for use as “lab rats”???

F-2. Should U.S. citizens be permitted to maintain at foreign vacation/weekend homes 25%/50%/75%/etc. human-DNA animals and/or 100%-human-DNA animals created from stem cells created from skin cells for use as sex slaves???

F-3. Should the C.I.A. be permitted to maintain outside the U.S. 25%/50%/75%/etc. human-DNA animals and/or 100%-human-DNA animals created from stem cells created from skin cells for use outside the U.S. as assassins???

G. Other issues???