- #1
Geuis
- 9
- 0
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/12/031219072314.htm
The above article basically is talking about a genetic comparison of the genomes of chimpanzees and humans and how both of our species has differentiated from our common ancestor X millions of years ago.
Since humans and chimpanzees are something like 98.9 percent the same genetically, it brought something to mind.
Suppose that you took a fertilized chimpanzee egg cell. You then genetically engineered the DNA and RNA in the cell to replace all of the 1.1% chimpanzee genes with the human genes that occupy those positions in our genome.
You then implanted this modified egg into a human woman to carry to term.
Since the cell is now genetically human and should grow into a human baby, let's ask a moral question. Is the resulting baby considered fully human, or a genetically engineered chimpanzee?
To quell any what-if? questions, the baby will look absolutely normal, will have normal human mental faculties and will be able to interbreed with any other human beings with no problems.
My question is strictly about how we define this being because of its non-standard origins.
The above article basically is talking about a genetic comparison of the genomes of chimpanzees and humans and how both of our species has differentiated from our common ancestor X millions of years ago.
Since humans and chimpanzees are something like 98.9 percent the same genetically, it brought something to mind.
Suppose that you took a fertilized chimpanzee egg cell. You then genetically engineered the DNA and RNA in the cell to replace all of the 1.1% chimpanzee genes with the human genes that occupy those positions in our genome.
You then implanted this modified egg into a human woman to carry to term.
Since the cell is now genetically human and should grow into a human baby, let's ask a moral question. Is the resulting baby considered fully human, or a genetically engineered chimpanzee?
To quell any what-if? questions, the baby will look absolutely normal, will have normal human mental faculties and will be able to interbreed with any other human beings with no problems.
My question is strictly about how we define this being because of its non-standard origins.