Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!lll-tis!ptsfa!ihnp4!ihlpl!rs55611 From: rs55611@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Robert E. Schleicher) Newsgroups: sci.misc,sci.bio,soc.women Subject: Re: Univerrsal Common Female Ancestor Message-ID: <2911@ihlpl.ATT.COM> Date: Wed, 14-Oct-87 14:26:14 EDT Article-I.D.: ihlpl.2911 Posted: Wed Oct 14 14:26:14 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 16-Oct-87 05:33:09 EDT References: <894@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <1248@bsu-cs.UUCP> <548@bucket.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois Lines: 58 Keywords: Eve? Xref: mnetor sci.misc:556 sci.bio:742 soc.women:7777 In article <548@bucket.UUCP>, leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) writes: > In article <1248@bsu-cs.UUCP> dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) writes: > elturner@phoenix.Princeton.EDU > <(Edwin L Turner) writes: > < > < All living people (or at least ~99% of them) have a single common > < female ancestor on their purely maternal line.... > > As I recall, human DNA is similar enough to gorilla that a hybrid would > quite likely be viable! Of course, no one is going to try it. It is a real > can of worms ethically.... > > -- > Leonard Erickson ...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard > CIS: [70465,203] Amazingly, I read a short article in the newspaper some time ago (which I'm trying to recall from memory, so please bear with some vagueness) about some researchers in Italy who had been experimenting with fertilization of human eggs with either gorila or chimp sperm (or the other way around). They were able to cause fertilization, as evidenced by the start of cell division, but only for a very short time (on the order of days), so there was never anything resembling an embryo. After someone revealed to the press the nature of the experimentation, it was called off. However, this does raise some very critical ethical questions. At the present rate of advances in genetic engineering, many of the ethical questions need answers quickly. The scariest part of the article was a quote from one of the researchers who said something to the effect of: (paraphrasing) "Just think! We could create a race of human/ape hybrids that we could use for manual labor!" The article concluded with the following food for thought (perhaps far-fetched; perhaps not): To what extent would/should human civil rights be "granted" to such a human/ape hybrid? As of now, there is a relatively clear distinctionmade between humans (with rights, at least ideally), and all other animal forms, who have essentially no rights. As we learn more about ape and porpoise intelligence, we may decide we are in need of animal rights in some cases. Even if apes never have rights, what about a half-ape/half human? Do they get a sub-set of human rights? What about the inevitable combinations like 3/4 human-1/4 ape or other mixes of human/ape genes. How about voting rights (1/2 vote for a half-human?) What about the exceptional half-human that's more intelligent than some full-human? The cans of worms that this would create are incredible. Barring some sort of control or legislation over genetic experimentation, we are bound to see something shocking occur within 10 years. Of course, how to control things (ie., legislate ethics) is also a difficult question. Frankly, I don't expect to see anything happen in this area until something dramatic happens, causing some amount of public outcry. Bob Schleicher ihlpl!rs55611 (Perhaps someone who remembers the article more clearly can elaborate. The article I read was in the Chicago Tribune quite a few months ago.)