Why are British scientists creating a human-pig hybrid?
Thousands of years ago, the Greek poet Homer wrote about a specific monster that seems to haunt humanity to this day. Khimaira had the chest of a lion, the tail of a snake, the midsection of a goat and heads of all three animals. The term chimera — a single creature made up of more than one species of animal — comes from that mythological beast. Chimeras, however, are not mythological. When the British government’s organization for science oversight approved a request to create human-pig hybrids in December 2007, there was uproar in the country. The extent of the debate, both bioethical and scientific, seemed to reflect the approval of a brand-new science. Chimeras, however, aren’t new. They’re just not that well publicized, because previous research in combining species has been carried out primarily in countries that don’t require public disclosure of research-science requests, like the United States and
