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From: binkley@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Jon Binkley)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Human/Chimp Hybrids?
Message-ID: <27093@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 27 Sep 90 18:32:10 GMT
References: <999@massey.ac.nz> <6284@bgsuvax.UUCP> <26689@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <3432@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> <1990Sep25.175301.6426@cbnewsm.att.com> <34305@cup.portal.com>
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Reply-To: binkley@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Jon Binkley)
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In article <34305@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson)
writes, in response to Michael Siemon:

>Even simple stuff like fixing a broken gene or implanting a few
>fetal brain cells brings the would-be Jeremy Rifkins out of the woodwork.

Precisely.  And if beneficial genetic research brings out the
anti-technology troglodytes in droves, what do you think the kind
of research you're proposing would do?  What it would do is bring
on such a backlash that no more valuable research would be performed.
Science doesn't operate in a social vacuum.
 
>What particular "moral abuses" do you have in mind?  Does the idea of
>human/ape sex repel you?  Don't worry!  No one's likely to nominate you
>to participate in the great experiment!  Only the fittest DNA will do!

Good Mark.  Glad to see you're so much less emotional than Michael.

-Jon Binkley