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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 11:54am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Synthetic Embryos
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Eric Sofer
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Joined: 31 January 2014
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 12:22pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Dr. Fu said "...we have no intention of trying to generate a synthetic structure [that] looks like a complete human embryo"

I'll bet SOMEONE has that intention. 

A lot of bad people (and maybe even some not-so-bad ones) embraced slavery because they didn't think blacks were human. And thus, anything could be done to them. The owners would never whip their family , friends, or even strangers... who were white.

Now, we're on the start of the path (and it IS started) to create entities that really AREN'T people. How do we deal with fully developed viable embryos, who can grow into pseudo-men and pseudo-women... who will supposed NOT be human, NOT have souls, and NOT have an ancestry? I see that as only two or three more steps down the road, and you can bet your last dollar that someone will see this as cheap labor who are just a step beyond robots.

Just because a thing CAN be done doesn't mean it SHOULD be done - and I think this is one of them.

Well, at least now we know how Wanda managed it. Embryoid, meet synthezoid. Synthezoid, meet embryoid.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 12:29pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

I often recall an interview I read that introduced me to the fact that humans and chimpanzees are so close genetically that interbreeding is possible. A scientist was asked if it had ever been done. His answer was basically “Not that I know of, but if we can think of it, someone has probably done it.”
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Craig Markley
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 12:38pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Humans and chimpanzees have different number of
chromosomes. 46 for humans and 48 for chimpanzees.
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Peter Martin
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 12:44pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

And horses have 64 chromosomes and donkeys have 62. Doesn't mean we don't have mules. 
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Humans and chimpanzees have different number of chromosomes. 46 for humans and 48 for chimpanzees.

•••

Horses and donkeys have a different chromosome count, but we still get mules.

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Craig Markley
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 2:53pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Mules are sterile because of the difference in
chromosomes. I failed to explain the complications of
non-matching chromosomes.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 3:42pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Nobody has suggested a human/chimp hybrid would be anything other than sterile.
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Peter Martin
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

And mules are generally sterile. Not always though, for example: LINK

And, as JB says, what does the fertility of offspring have to do with the yes/no proposition of the parents being able to breed? Whether they are fertile or not, if there are offspring then interbreeding happened.
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Jeffrey Rice
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 4:09pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

I just hope these "Embroids" are tolerant overlords in the future.

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Bill Collins
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Joined: 26 May 2005
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Posted: 11 September 2019 at 9:58pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

I definitely remember a news story from the late
70`s/early 80`s where a female scientist was attempting
to get pregnant by a chimp, not sure if it was in Japan
or China.

Edited by Bill Collins on 12 September 2019 at 8:05am
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