The Centaur Comes to Life - Scientist Create Animals That Are Part Human

A new ethics dilemma in the science world has arisen, with scientists creating animals using human parts, making the animals part human? Although pig valves have been used in surgery for a long time, at the University of Nevada in Reno, there are a flock of 50 sheep; many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs.

Those of you who know your Greek mythology, should remember the Centaurs; creatures with the head, chest and arms of a man, and the body of a horse. These man-horse beasts fed on meat and were given to riotous revelries; thus coming to symbolize the dark, unruly forces of nature.

So ... today's dark and unruly scientists have created pigs with human blood, fused rabbit eggs with human DNA and injected human stem-cells to make paralyzed mice walk. Even more unbelievable, is that this type of research (which used to only be conducted in Nazi Germany) falls within the new ethics guidelines of the influential National Academies - issued this past week for stem-cell research.

Remember the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz? The Academies recommends a prohibition on mixing human stem-cells with embryos from monkeys. However, some scientists are pushing into larger animals and primates.

Even though mice and other animals may get some human brain stem-cell injections, we have been reassured that if the mice's behavior mimics human behavior, they will kill the mice. Oh no! Calling John Steinback, author of Mice and Men.