Excuse me for possible 'not-making-sense'-ness of this blog because I haven't blogged in a while and the topic I'm about to tackle kind of needs some sort of coherence for me to be able to actually say what I want to say. Look, even before I start the actual content, I'm already rambling.
A few days ago, I saw this video on Facebook about a group of scientists from the University of California who are currently developing human/pig-hybrid embryo.
According to this, this, and this articles, the embryo are developed and let grow for about 28 days before they are terminated for the tissue analysis. The scientists modify the pig's DNA to remove something from the pig (all the biology terms and mumbo jumbo are lost on me) and add human's stem cell so that the hybrid embryo can grow pancreas. The motivation behind this experiment is to create farm animals (that are the piggies) which can also be organ donors because they can harvest the human organs inside the pigs. And these modified embryos are called the chimeras.
In theory, this can be a giant leap to medical science. I mean, we all know that we're in shortage of organ donors and a lot of people had died while waiting for the perfect donors to come along. But there are also a lot of other things to take into consideration.
For one, as had been mention in the articles I'd linked above, the stem cells work to create tissue and there's no telling what tissue/what cells they will grow and the experiment can go wrong and the pig may have human's brain. And... it's just too cruel to think about what'll happen to the poor human in the pig's body. Just imagine! I mean, that's why they terminate the embryo after 28 days to see what other cells/tissues/organs the chimera will produce so that they won't go too far.
But here's my question.
How far is too far? How long to go before it gets too far and the pig becomes too human, with human's organs, human's cells and human's blood vessels. Will we still be able to slaughter them just for the sake of their organs. Okay, I'm a meat eater but even this makes my stomach churn.
Anyway, leave your thoughts on what you think of this new development on the comment! (I totally have watched too many YouTube videos and I sound like a Youtuber)
And all of this kind of give me an inspiration to start a new contest revolving the idea of human/animal hybrid. Sci-fi style because I don't read much sci-fi and maybe it's time to change that.
I guess this blog has been long enough. Until then, see you later, meebs!
xxLina
Edit: So I haven't gotten the chance to credit Lizz for this awesome blog layout. Look at Piper looking like the sass Queen she is! I'm in love! If you want a da bomb af blog layout, you can request your own at her shop right here. You're welcome! XD