Information AboutParahuman |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PARAHUMAN | |
| human evolution | |
| mammal hybrids | |
| transhumanism | |
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American president George W. Bush spoke out against " Human-animal Hybrid s" in his 2006 State of the Union address. 1 In 2005 the US Patent Office rejected a patent application by Stuart Newman, backed by anti-biotech activist Jeremy Rifkin , on a human-animal hybrid. The Washington Post: "U.S. Denies Patent for a Too-Human Hybrid", February 13, 2005 This application was intended not to commercialize the technology but to call attention to and ultimately suppress it. [http://www.reason.com/rb/rb051502.shtml reasononline: "The Yuck Factor: Activists try to patent fear.", May 15, 2002 Technically such Hybrid s already exist; for example, faulty human heart valves are routinely replaced with ones taken from cows and pigs. This surgery effectively makes the recipient a human-animal chimera, though there is no visible effect. Scientists have also done extensive research into the combination of genes from different species. e.g. adding human (and other animal) genes to bacteria and farm animals to mass-produce Insulin and Spider Silk proteins. Note that individual genes can be transplanted between species without the transplantation of whole cells. WHY? There are several possible reasons that parahumans or Chimeras might be created. The existing forms of Chimera exist for medical and industrial purposes, e.g. production of drugs and of organs suitable for Organ Transplantation . Other experiments aim to reveal knowledge about the function of the human body, e.g. by creating mice with a human-like Immune System to study AIDS or with a brain incorporating human Nerve Cells . Restrictions on Cloning and Stem Cell research, though the latter were partially lifted by George W. Bush , make Chimera research a more attractive alternative in some researchers' eyes. 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, or in pursuit of a group's specific vision of an "ideal" human (e.g. a stronger, smarter, or more peaceful human variant), or by medical decisions made by individual families. If parahumans are created using Germline Engineering , they breed true, and may be different enough from ordinary humans to be unable to breed with them, thus making them a distinct Species . Parahumans created using only Somatic Genetic Engineering would have "normal" children. Another key difference is that a germ-line parahuman would most likely be modified before birth, while a somatic parahuman could be an adult human who chose to be modified. The latter could be seen as more ethical because the changes are made with Informed Consent . A counterargument is that no harm is done to a person born with modified genes because the person had no control over their genetics anyway. ETHICS Parahuman and related research raises many ethical, moral, and legal issues. George W. Bush denounced it as well as Cloning and the sale of human embryos, saying that "Human life is a gift from our Creator -- and that gift should never be discarded, devalued, or put up for sale."2 Bush's position as a Christian suggests that he considers the creation of chimeras to devalue the uniqueness of human life or to be tampering with a divine plan.3 In contrast, some Transhumanists see this technology as one of many ways to overcome fundamental human limitations, such as disease and aging, and point out the many potential commercial and medical benefits. The debate can also be seen in terms of individual freedom to use Germinal Choice Technology or Reprogenetics . Other ethical issues (shared with Genetic Engineering in general) involve the legal and moral status of a hybrid individual or race, whether the decision-making power over its creation should lie with governments or individuals, whether a distinction should be drawn between strictly medical treatments (restoring lost function) and those enhancing humans above some "normal" standard, whether Medical Ethics allow doctors to offer parahuman-related treatments, and whether Xenotransplantation poses risks of cross-species disease transfer. PARAHUMANS IN SCIENCE FICTION Science Fiction authors sometimes use the term "parahuman" to refer to distinct "races" of human-like creatures created through Genetic Engineering . A parahuman created starting from a nonhuman animal template could be considered a Biological Uplift , as in the works of David Brin , while a parahuman based more closely on the human form and genome might also be called Posthuman or Transhuman . The Role-playing Game Transhuman Space and the related book " GURPS Bio-Tech" use the term "parahuman" interchangably with "variant human" to refer to a wide array of heavily-modified "racial templates." These range from a "Gilgamesh-Series" resembling normal humans but with increased lifespan; a "Lepus-Series" resembling Anthropomorphic rabbits; and a "Tek Rat" described as a mix of human, raccoon, and possum. Parahumans are a useful concept for the science fiction writer because they offer ways to explore issues of racism, alienation, religion, and freedom, and to justify colonization of exotic environments such as the ocean or planets with non-Earthlike properties. SEE ALSO REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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