violating the natural species boundaries between humans and nonhumans. Creating a nonhuman chimera would be similar to creating an evolutionary intermediate among humans and animals.
According to traditional natural law theorists, every living thing has an inner tendency to reach its goal and to pursue a particular type of life through certain characteristic biological functions. Therefore, transplanting human cells, tissues, and organs into nonhumans in ways that modify their normal function would violate the natural teleology of these creatures.
Some objections to animal-human fusions enlist the notion of human dignity. In its essence, human dignity is something unique and sacred to human identity and exists in a right-based ethical framework. Most major religions emphasize the infinite value of human life and assert that must be preserved almost at all cost. Producing animals with human attributes, such as human-like cognition or human gametes, raises concerns about the dignity of such organisms. There is a general belief that it is unlikely that human neurons could propagate in an animal brain in such a way as to create, for example, human consciousness in a mouse. Yet most consequences and outcomes of creating these chimeras remain unexplored.
Conclusion
Scientists are trying to create chimeras to benefit humankind, to gain a better understanding of human disease, and to develop new therapies. Chimeras, creatures part human and part animal, force society to think critically of current bioethics in order to bring them into alignment with our morality. This reorganizing surely comes at the cost of losing our position at the top of all life. On the other hand, to ban chimera research and delay the progress of medicine merely to defend our position seems definitely not reasonable.
Anna M. (Maria) Destro
Eastern Piedmont University Medical School
See Also: Animal Cloning; Cloning, Ethics of; President’s Council on Bioethics.
Further Readings
Basl, J. “State Neutrality and the Ethics of Human Enhancement Technologies.” American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience, v.1/2 (2010).
Baylis, F. and J. Robert. “Part-Human Chimeras: Worrying the Facts, Probing the Ethics.” American Journal of Bioethics, v.7/5 (2007).
Chen, Y., et al. “Embryonic Stem Cells Generated by Nuclear Transfer of Human Somatic Nuclei Into Rabbit Oocytes.” Cell Research, v.13/4 (2003).
Greene, M., K. Schill, S. Takahashi, et al. “Moral Issues of Human-Non-Human Primate Neural Grafting.” Science, v.309/5733 (2005).
Nagy, A. and J. Rossant. “Chimaeras and Mosaics for Dissecting Complex Mutant Phenotypes.” International Journal of Development Biology, v.45 (2001).
National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research. Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2005.
Piotrowska, Monika. “Transferring Morality to Human-Nonhuman Chimeras.” American Journal of Bioethics, v.14/2 (2014).
Robert, J. and F. Baylis. “Crossing Species Boundaries.” American Journal of Bioethics, v.3/3 (2003).
China
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China
China is the world’s most populous country, with over 1.35 billion people, which is about one-fifth of the people in the world. The domestic term for the present economic system is “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” based in part on a reinterpretation of Marx that is at odds with the interpretation utilized by Mao and the Soviets. China has considerable resources to draw upon in scientific research. The major funding institution for scientific research is the Ministry of Science and Technology, which administers the funding of various programs, such as the National Basic Research Program, National High-Tech Research and Development Program, and National Key Technologies R&D Program. The major scientific institution is the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a national academy devoted to the natural sciences, part of the State Council of China.
The major impediment to scientific research in China has historically been the isolation of the Chinese scientific community from the rest of the world, a problem which exacerbated itself each decade as the gap between Chinese science and the rest of the world became greater and greater. In 1978, at the same time the Four Modernizations were implemented, China sought help from the United Nations Development Program to improve the currency of Chinese science. Projects established in the next five years focused on better decision making in scientific and research policy, on-the-job and academic training programs, and information processing centers.
Scientific achievement is seen as a critical political goal as well as a key aspect to long-term economic prosperity, and the Chinese view of the state’s role in scientific endeavors is typical of Asian nations, commonly characterized as “techno-nationalism.” However, as in many other countries, state-supported research tends to favor applied rather than pure research, and to be results-focused with an eye toward solving specific problems or producing commercializable innovations. Historically, China was a major contributor to the history of science and technology. Ancient China is famously home to the inventions of the compass, gunpowder, paper, and printing, collectively called the Four Great Inventions. The Western world surpassed Chinese science and technology during the Enlightenment, and China has not yet caught up, much less regained its lead. Today, technology and applied research are high priorities for the Chinese government, and about $100 billion is spent on scientific research and development each year. The emphases tend to be on engineering and computer science; Lenovo and Huawei are among the leading telecommunications/computer companies in the world, China’s achievements in practical robotics rival Japan’s, and its space program is ambitious and well funded.
Science and technology policy are primarily the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Science and Technology, formerly known as the State Science and Technology Commission. It coordinates national policy, administers research programs, oversees international cooperation, and fosters science and technology development zones. The Ministry of Education is also involved in science policy, in its role overseeing university research institutes, and the ministries of Industry and Information Technology, Health, and Agriculture all have roles commensurate with their mandates. Many research institutes and programs are overseen by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the major nonengineering professional science organization in China. Individual grants for research are also given by the National Natural Science Foundation.
Although most attention has gone to electronics and information technology, computing, robotics, nanotechnology, and material science, as well as industries that directly impact the needs of China’s enormous population like agriculture and aquaculture, in the 21st century the life sciences have become increasingly prominent in China’s scientific research. The National Natural Science Foundation launched a medical department in 2010 in order to disburse funds for medical research. Since 2011, biotechnology has been a major priority of China’s science funding, and new regulations for stem cell research were introduced in 2012 in order to make it easier for Chinese-produced therapies to be approved for commercial sale overseas. In part because of its laxer regulatory environment, China has already become a medical tourism destination for monied patients seeking experimental or controversial remedies to medical conditions. At least 150,
