This is your government hard at work!

By Zach W On July 14, 2009 · 8 Comments · In News, Those Kooky Conservatives!

Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas is worried about human-animal hybrids being created in labs, and he’s so worried he wants to pass legislation outlawing human-animal hybrids:

The bill — modeled on an inexplicably overlooked effort by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — would ban the creation of “part-human, part-animal creatures, which are created in laboratories, and blur the line between species.”

The legislation, he says, “is limited in scope” and wouldn’t limit the use of some animal parts for human use, including porcine pig valves.

Despite giving no concrete examples of what such hybrids would look like (i.e. Spider-Man), he’s got 20 co-sponsors including one Dem, Mary Landrieu (D-La.).

While I’m as concerned as anyone about the possible proliferation of mermaids and/or centaurs, don’t lawmakers have better things to worry about, like getting our nation’s economy back on track?

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8 Responses to This is your government hard at work!

PartiallyBlue says:

July 14, 2009 at 7:04 am

Senator Sam and I are on the same page on this one.I have three fears about H/A mixes: 1. Somebody will want to increase the intelligence of animals for their own purposes. We do not need smarter mice nor intelligent predators. 2. Somebody will want to create people with specific animal traits like superior strength, shorter legs, longer arms, night vision,etc. for specific work that replaces people. Creating special people for special roles gives me pause. 3. Somebody will not genetically prevent one and two above from reproducing and we will have a whole new world of aberrant life forms.

In addition, there will be religious forces stirred up to bring about the New Millenium as they come to grips with what Abomination really means in Revelations.

Oh, yeah, bring on laws today that prevent companies from creating new life forms without regulations and approval. Without some controls in place, we will have made changes to Mother Nature that we may not live to regret.
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PartiallyBlue says:

July 14, 2009 at 7:12 am

If you want to read a plausible fiction about a world gone wrong with creationists making new life forms, try reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. The link takes you to the WikiP synopsis.
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Ordinary Jill says:

July 14, 2009 at 7:54 am

I don’t think this bill is really about preventing the creation of enhanced individuals (human or animal). I think it is really about limiting human stem cell research. Right now, human stem cells are routinely cultured with mouse cells (although they are not hybridized). There are other techniques that may be tried in the future to produce better therapeutic stem cells. I think that this bill would prohibit any techniques that introduce even a single gene from another species into lab-grown human stem cells. There is also concern among the right wingers that mostly-animal organ donors will be bred with a few (tailored) human genes to prevent rejection.
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silent E says:

July 14, 2009 at 8:02 am

More important things to do like, say, trying to pass a Michael Jackson resolution??????
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- Zach W says:
  
  July 14, 2009 at 5:58 pm
  
  Exactly!
  
  < / sarcasm >
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Working today says:

July 14, 2009 at 8:21 am

Ordinary Jill, if you follow the links you will see that it is about H/A mixing.
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- Ordinary Jill says:
  
  July 14, 2009 at 7:59 pm
  
  I’m not referring to the bill’s stated purpose, but to its likely consequences (and the hidden agenda of pro-lifers like Brownback and Jindal). I don’t think the bill’s supporters honestly believe that living monsters are just around the corner. Brownback alludes to genetically-modified crops in order to pander to the Kansas farmers who distrust ADM and to play on the fears of the uneducated. Does he really think that human-animal hybrids will pollute our gene pool with tainted pollen? I doubt it.
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PartiallyBlue says:

July 14, 2009 at 8:34 pm

I have not known Senator Brownback to be a liar but then he is a politician by trade and training. I think that we are less than ten years away from creating our first new species of complex animals. The floodgates will open after that.
If we permit the creation of new life without controls and regulation, we will be in jeopardy.
I am not talking about monsters, chimeras, and beasts with ten horns.Just unnatural life that will be permitted to reproduce, then to be sold, then to be placed in natural settings to be studied. Unintended consequences will result.
It is not our gene pool that worries me. It is the creation of a new one.
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