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British scientists are concerned about experiments that their colleagues all over the world spend on animals. During the experiments, the researchers transplanted to our smaller brothers, in particular monkeys, human tissues and genes. This, in turn, can lead to dangerous humanization of animals: they will gain a mind similar to ours, and they can even talk! In this regard, scientists require development new ethical and legal rules governing this kind of experiments. “We must bring this issue to the public before something irreparable happens, “says the geneticist from Cambridge University, Professor Martin Bobrow. British the academy of medical scientists, also concerned about this issue, reported that the number of experiments in which human tissue or genes are transplanted by animals, growing continuously. So, for Last year, over 1 million experiments were carried out, during which mice and fish were transplanted with human DNA. Somewhat earlier scientists from Shanghai fused human cells and eggs rabbits, and the Americans created an animal that is 85% sheep, and 15% – already a man! Outwardly, however, this is invisible: the head, his body, legs and tail are the same as ordinary sheep with human blood. * * * All these laboratory mutants called scientists “chimeras” in honor of the Greek mythical creature with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a snake, are needed by researchers, as they claim to create new cures for cancer, hepatitis, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and other ailments, as well as to understand, finally, the role of individual genes in the development of the body. Scientists believe that the more human-like an animal is, the more suitable a research model it will be for approbation of drugs and other needs. The opportunity is also attractive. to grow “spare parts” for transplantation into the human body. The organizers of such experiments do not see in them either ethical or legal issues that Professor Bobrow and his like-minded people. According to the scientist, there should be created a new organization that would control this kind experiments because the creation of chimeras brings to life a number questions. What a new human-like combination is obtained in As a result, for what purposes it is permissible to use it, and with what not? And at what stage should this combination be considered human? Moreover, individual experiments with animals should be completely prohibited, believes Bobrow. For example, a transplant of human stem cells in the brain of a primate, as this can lead to humanization of the monkey. Similar studies may turn into disastrous for the people themselves, so they must be stopped, adds professor of philosophy Thomas Baldwin of the University of York. * * * Currently studies involving monkeys, for example chimpanzees are outlawed in the UK. But they still allowed in many other countries, including the United States, and British scientists are not forbidden to participate in these experiments. Baldwin and his colleagues prepared a report reminding of the script new American film “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” According to the plot it all starts with the fact that scientists are looking for a cure for the disease Alzheimer’s create a new breed of monkeys with the human type intelligence. “There is a concern that if you add a lot human brain cells in the brain of primates, they will turn into creatures, possessing abilities that are unique to humans, for example a speech, or will be able to manipulate and communicate with us, ”Baldwin warned at a press conference in London.
UK DNA
