Baaad idea

As if consuming genetically altered fruits and hormone-enhanced meat isn’t creepy enough with humans fiddling with nature, it is now scientifically possible to harvest individually cloned transplant organs from humanoid sheep. A story appeared Saturday in the London-based news outlet, The Daily Mail, that Nevada scientists have successfully developed what the outlet calls a “human-sheep chimera,” a clone of sorts with 15 percent human cells developed with the intention of growing human organs for transplant within the living bodies of these hybrid sheep. This is not the first development of its kind, but disturbing enough to warrant conversation.\nThe process by which these creatures come into existence is thus: A normal sheep is bred and, once pregnant, the lamb fetus is injected with particular human stem cells that alter the natural development process in order to produce a heart, liver, lungs and, get this, brain tissue human enough for transplant. For every person, a different lamb must be genetically groomed for his or her consumption, so no normal reproduction and development process is possible for it to be used for this purpose. The process immediately alters the fundamental, biological identity of the developing lamb and dooms it to be sacrificed at the command of the genes’ owner. \nI don’t generally take on “environmental” issues, but for goodness’ sake, bringing a creature that is 15 percent human into the world to be farmed for human organs is vile and disturbing on myriad levels. Before questioning the issue of human gene-involvement in this process, there is a substantial argument for animal rights and this being a fundamental violation therein. Every animal is brought into existence by a genetically dictated reaction outside of the realm of human control. By virtue of coming into existence in a naturally dictated form, every animal is posited with the right to exist as itself, not as a hybrid mutated by human hands post-gamete fusion.\nThis idea of an institutional distinction between human and animal rights begs the question, what makes something human? As geneticists delve deeper into the human genome, further revealing our biological closeness to the rest of the animal world, the once unassailable differentiation between human and beast is continually proven as a human fabrication, even without the actions of scientists like professor Esmail Zanjani, the scientist in charge of this development. Once you purposely begin mutating things with the addition of human genes, that already blurry line between human and beast becomes completely ambiguous. \nIt could easily be argued that by virtue of their partial humanity, these hybrids are subject to the respect suggested by natural law theories on interpersonal relations (pursuit of happiness, physical autonomy, reproduction rights, etc.). On the face it seems like an utterly ridiculous claim. In reality, however, to disprove its validity would be exceedingly difficult, as to do so would require a solid definition of what it is to be human and to be guaranteed human rights. The fact that such a maddening dilemma is elicited by this situation is red flag enough to demand serious legal scrutiny before application of this science can be allowed to continue.