Scientists’ progress toward creating chimeras raises major ethical questions.
Afew weeks ago, scientists reported successfully growing human cells in monkey embryos, paving the way for creating live human–monkey chimeras. For many, this could open the door to great medical advancements such as in organ transplantation. For others, it may be a sign that science has overstepped a moral and ethical boundary.
A chimera, in the ancient mythological sense, was a hybrid creature made up of a lion, a goat, and a snake and was the product of the mating of the giant serpent Typhon and his lover Echidna. In the modern biological sense, however, a chimera is a cluster of cells or a whole organism that contains distinct cell types from two or more different organisms.
