Re: Bringing Back The Mammoth (again)

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Wed, 16 Aug 2006, Phillip Bigelow wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 10:01:42 -0700 (PDT) Glen Ledingham
> <glenled@yahoo.com> writes:
> > --- "Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu> wrote:
> > > On Tue, 15 Aug 2006, Dora Smith wrote:
> > > > A neanderthal hybrid?   At least we'd find out if
> > > that's possible, and if the
> > > > offspring can reproduce.
> > >
> > > Yes, but who would they get to volunteer?
> >
> > Considering that the person most likely to produce a
> > viable offspring is the H. sapiens with the most
> > Neanderthal characteristics, successfully volunteering
> > might not confer great honor.
> [...]
>
> I know nothing about the current U.S. laws on this kind of thing.  We DO
> insert human genes into plants and into bacteria, so the current federal
> laws (whatever they are) probably aren't particularly strict.  But the
> religious Fundies would have a field day with such a program.

By coincidence, this just in:


http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19125646.300-debate-rages-over-animalhuman-chimeras.html

 Should medical researchers be allowed to create human-animal hybrids to
 investigate disease? No, says an ethics think tank that advises the
 Scottish Parliament. Yes, says Ian Wilmut of the University of Edinburgh,
 creator of Dolly the cloned sheep.
 ...

Looks like this line of research is wide open.