{"id":186861,"date":"2018-08-19T16:35:22","date_gmt":"2018-08-19T21:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=186861"},"modified":"2018-08-19T16:55:32","modified_gmt":"2018-08-19T21:55:32","slug":"chimeras-disturbing-new-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/chimeras-disturbing-new-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Chimeras become a reality in disturbing new human-animal hybrid research"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Recently, scientists have made breakthroughs in the creation of human-animal hybrids known as\u00a0chimeras<\/a>, <\/em>(ky-MEER’-ehz), or a mix of human cells with an animal host. Nature.com\u00a0explained<\/a>, “To create chimeras, scientists generally inject pluripotent stem cells<\/a> \u2014 which can become any type of organ \u2014 from one species into the early embryo of a second species.”<\/p>\n

According to Science Alert<\/a>, the term<\/a> comes from “a legend in\u00a0Greek mythology, describing a monster which was often depicted as a lion with a goat\u2019s head sticking from the side of its neck, and a snake for a tail.”\u00a0 A\u00a02011 report<\/a> from UK’s Academy of Medical Sciences notes that “human cells used to create chimeras can be taken with appropriate consent directly from early embryos (e.g. surplus from IVF treatments), aborted fetuses, or a live-born person (e.g. human liver cells, or a cancer biopsy) or from cultured human cell lines.”<\/p>\n