How Scientists Grew Human / Monkey Chimeras to 20 Days Gestation

There is an ethical limit somewhere. We need to figure out where the line is ASAP.

It’s a tale as old as civilization, and probably older. The human-animal chimera. From the minotaur of King Minos, to the Fly of Jeff Goldblum, we are simultaneously fascinated and horrified at the possibility of bridging the gap between humankind and wild beasts.

To be fair, science fiction has outpaced science fact in this regard. But human-animal chimeras have been created. Though, never, until now, in as advanced a state as is reported in this paper appearing in Cell — which has pushed our ethical envelope further than ever before and will force us all to grapple with some really fundamental questions — like what it means to be human.

The headlines write themselves, of course. “Human-monkey chimera created” is, well, now technically not hyperbole. But let’s be really clear about how this set of experiments worked, and how they were different from what went on before.