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. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26113