Could scientists create a person/animal hybrid, such as a

[raccoon]

dog/person or cat/person? Ethical questions aside, could it be done?

[Ignacio Upton]

1. We already have a human/chimp hybrid

He is sitting in the Oval Office as we speak.

[Kookaburra]

3. You sure that's a hybrid?

I'm thinking extra-terrestrial.

Do y'all remember that show from the '70s called Manimal? I vaguely remember it, as I was but a wee Spanks at the time, but wasn't it about some sort of human/animal hybrid with super-powers?

[damntexdem]

6. Hey, he may be a human-chimp hybrid, but:

1) no way was he created by scientists; and
2) what an insult to chimps.

[raccoon]

8. A shining example of an experiment gone horribly wrong! nt

[C_U_L8R]

2. like a president / chimp ??

on edit.. damn not fast enough

[Mabus]

4. It has been done, sort of

In China they fused human cells with rabbit cells and then harvested them for the stem cells.

[whistle]

5. H.G. Welles novel from 1920's The Island of Dr Moreau which delt

...with this exact subject and made into three films:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116654/

Editorial Reviews
Previously filmed in 1933 (as Island of Lost Souls) and 1977, the classic H.G. Wells story was filmed again for this graphic 1996 version. The film was roasted by critics, but it's an utterly fascinating failure, largely due to the performances of David Thewlis, Val Kilmer, and especially Marlon Brando in the title role as a mad (and in this case outrageously bizarre) scientist whose experiments in crossbreeding humans with animals have gone terribly awry. Thewlis plays the wayward scholar who is rescued at sea by Kilmer and brought to Moreau's island to discover the doctor's unnatural "children." Fairuza Balk plays Moreau's half-cat daughter, but it's Brando and Kilmer (in one scene doing a killer Brando impersonation) who steal the show, along with the astounding makeup effects created by Stan Winston. A guilty pleasure by any measure, this movie has definite cult-favorite potential, and in addition to offering a "director's cut" with previously unseen footage, the DVD includes audio commentary by director John Frankenheimer, who replaced the original director on short notice and completed this film under highly stressful conditions. --Jeff Shannon

http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue01/reviews/souls.htm

Island of Lost Souls is a masterpiece of '30s horror. Filled with dank jungle settings, dark caves, and huge mutant plants, Island of Lost Souls percolates with a decadent atmosphere that charms while it also horrifies. With director Erle C. Kenton at the helm--who was mostly just a journeyman director with several '40s Universal monster bashes to his credit--the island becomes a sinister, vile environment of creeping shadows that infiltrate right into the souls of the characters on screen.


http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue01/reviews/moreau.htm

[raccoon]

10. I read the book several decades ago, maybe I'll have to read it

again.

I haven't seen the 1996 version of the movie, but it looks worth checking out.

[jokerman93]

7. Chimeras and the occasional Parahuman

If it can be done, you can bet it will be done. And my guess is it'll be the Koreans or the Chinese who do it first.

Chimeras
Chimeras in research
In biological research, chimeras are artificially produced by mixing cells from two different organisms. This can result in the eventual development of an adult animal composed of cells from both donors, which may be of different species — for example, in 1984 a chimeric geep was produced by combining embryos from a goat and a sheep<2>. A chicken with a quail's brain has been produced by grafting portions of a quail embryo into a chicken embryo.

Interspecies chimeras are made in the laboratory. In addition to the famous geep, there are rat/mouse chimeras and a rabbit/human chimera that was not allowed to develop beyond a few days. Like hybrids, the parent species must be closely enough related in order to produce live offspring that are relatively healthy. Chimeras between different varieties of mice are relatively common in embryology. By fusing cells of differently coloured or otherwise genetically distinct mice, researchers have been able to see how embryos form and which structures are related (arise from which line of cells).

In August 2003, researchers at the Shanghai Second Medical University in China reported that they had successfully fused human skin cells and rabbit eggs to create the first human chimeric embryos. The embryos were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory setting, then destroyed to harvest the resulting stem cells. Increasingly realizable projects using part-human, part-animal chimeras as living factories for producing cells or organs for xenotransplantation raise a host of ethical and safety issues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics)

Dog/human? Check out the picture here!
Parahuman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parahuman
Some great links below it too.

[raccoon]

9. Thanks for the link. From the article,

A more advanced chimera — such as an obviously modified human rather than a normal human or bacterium with invisible differences — might be created for several reasons. The chimera might be bred as a type of slave or specialized worker...

I could easily see that happening. OTOH, why bother, when it's so easy to find cheap human labor these days.

This is one of those times I think, I hope it won’t be in my lifetime.

That artist’s concept picture is something else. :puke:

[Phoonzang]

11. I think it would probably be easier to bring an animal...

...to sentience. I'm all for it. If we can create new intelligent species maybe it will give us some new perspectives on things. Humans are screwing things up...maybe someone else can give us ideas. Species that think differently.

Imagine populations of intelligent chimps, dolphins, elephants, etc. Ok...maybe not chimps, they've shown themselves to be just as brutal and violent as humans (not making a W joke).

[AlienGirl]

12. Species that think differently would still only be prey to humans

There are already species that communicate in human languages like ASL and English.

An artificially-created sapient (intelligent) species would only be used as the next great "animal model" in brain experiments. If it can speak, so much the better, they can ask it exactly how much pain and despair it's feeling, so they can ratchet it up a notch if it's not bad enough to test the superdrug or the interrogation technique.

Tucker

[Tesha]

13. BTW, "intraspecies chimeras" commonly exist.

If you've erver seen a Calico Cat, you've seen an
intraspecies example of a chimera of sorts.

Actually, in pronciple, all XX females are, to some
degree chimeras.

When you have two X chromorsome, then in any givem
cell, one or the other of the X chromosomes tends
to be dominent, but it isn't necessarily the same
X chromosome in every cell in the creature!

That's why all Calico Cats are female and only female
cats can be Calico. Cat coloration is controlled by
genes on the X chromosome; one gene arrangement
specifies colors in the range of white to orange
while a different gene arrangement in the same
location on the chromosome specifies colors in
the range of white to black. Calicos end up with
one X gene of each type, and in some parts of the
cat, the "white-to-orange" X chromosome is dominant
while in other parts of the cat, the "white-to-black"
X chromosome is dominant.

Some recent research suggests that the same effect,
even if not visible in skin coloration, is present
and active in all XX-styled females, even women

Tesha