X-Message-Number: 26113
References: <>
From: Kennita Watson <>
Subject: Re: Genetic Mingling Mixes Human, Animal Cells
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 04:15:22 -0700

I immediately thought "What about dolphins?".  Then I
thought that that just might make the dolphins dumber
instead of smarter :-) .  More interesting would be to
give them hands.  How flexible/prehensile are a
dolphin's pectoral fins?  Maybe just splitting them
would allow manipulation (she says, remembering an
article about people who've had their tongues split).

Cheers,
Kennita

On Apr 30, 2005, at 2:00 AM, CryoNet wrote:

> "The boundary is going to push further into larger animals," New York
> Medical College professor Stuart Newman said. "That's just asking for
> trouble."
>
> Newman and anti-biotechnology activist Jeremy Rifkin have been 
> tracking this
> issue for the last decade and were behind a rather creative assault on 
> both
> interspecies mixing and the government's policy of patenting individual
> human genes and other living matter.
>
> Years ago, the two applied for a patent for what they called a 
> "humanzee," a
> hypothetical - but very possible - creation that was half human and 
> chimp.
>
> The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office finally denied their application 
> this
> year, ruling that the proposed invention was too human: Constitutional
> prohibitions against slavery prevents the patenting of people.
>
> Newman and Rifkin were delighted, since they never intended to create 
> the
> creature and instead wanted to use their application to protest what 
> they
> see as science and commerce turning people into commodities.

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