I wonder what would happen if...

[Leslie Anne]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

What a bunch of idiots. I wonder if I join would I get banned from there? I think I'll join.

ETA: They probably also think the earth is a 50,000 years old too. lol

They probably do! Apparently, they took a poll on how many of their members base their flat earth belief on passages from the bible but the link was dead. (darn it!)

That's probably one of the few messageboards where the trolls are the sane ones.

Anyway, back to the original topic....You got me curious so I googled "cross-species in vitro fertilization" and "cross-species embryo transfer" and I was surprised to find that this is actually being done on animals. A woman named Betsy Dresser has pioneered the practice in an effort to save some endangered species from extinction.

I doubt that it would ever be tried with human embryos. First, you'd have to find an animal that would accept the embryo, then one that could actually birth a human baby (I certainly have no idea about ape reproductive organs) and then there would inevitably be some legislation that would be put in place against it since some related practices have been made illegal. I was surprised, however, to find that there are some sketchy things going on nonetheless.

For example, a human nucleus has been put into a cow cell and there actually was cell division (er something like that). The "thing" was destroyed shortly after observing that it was possible. (google "human-cow hybrid" for more) Creepy, to say the least.

Haven't these scientists seen The Fly? IMHO, it's yet another situation where just because you can doesn't mean you should.

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by Leslie Anne

They probably do! Apparently, they took a poll on how many of their members base their flat earth belief on passages from the bible but the link was dead. (darn it!)

That's probably one of the few messageboards where the trolls are the sane ones.

Anyway, back to the original topic....You got me curious so I googled "cross-species in vitro fertilization" and "cross-species embryo transfer" and I was surprised to find that this is actually being done on animals. A woman named Betsy Dresser has pioneered the practice in an effort to save some endangered species from extinction.

I doubt that it would ever be tried with human embryos. First, you'd have to find an animal that would accept the embryo, then one that could actually birth a human baby (I certainly have no idea about ape reproductive organs) and then there would inevitably be some legislation that would be put in place against it since some related practices have been made illegal. I was surprised, however, to find that there are some sketchy things going on nonetheless.

For example, a human nucleus has been put into a cow cell and there actually was cell division (er something like that). The "thing" was destroyed shortly after observing that it was possible. (google "human-cow hybrid" for more) Creepy, to say the least.

Haven't these scientists seen The Fly? IMHO, it's yet another situation where just because you can doesn't mean you should.

omg I love this one...the one about the Bible! Don't get me wrong, I don't negate anything the Bible teaches, but quite a few people see discrepancies between the biblical creation story as they understand it and the idea of evolution. I like how they say "Oh the Earth is only a few thousand years old and that all the organisms were created by God exactly as you see them today." Right there is where I can see the areas of disagreement. See, this theory's creation date is at odds with most of what humans know from other fields of science specifically from physics and astronomy, which indicate that the Earth is about 4 billion years old. The evolutionary process as I understand it wouldn't have had sufficient time to generate the diversity of the planet. I honestly think evolution is at odds with a literal interpretation of the biblical creation story. There's just no way around it. Many denominations of Christianity as well as other religions of course have no problem with the theory of evolution or with the age of the Earth being a little over 4 billion years. I think that's just the way God made things ya know.

lol I'm actually thinking about signing up to be a member of that message board, just to get under their skin. I'll probably get banned within the 1st 5 or 6 posts lol lol lol.

I figured some kind of experiments were being done. That's why I kept asking the tour guide lady a bunch of questions she couldn't answer. I wasn't trying to make her look like a moron or anything, I was just trying to see why she thought humans and chimps were related. I was just curious.

The information you provided is SO good. I actually think scientist have done some crazy things, and even if they did do in vitro reproduction, with a chimp and a human they wouldn't let it leak out. People would freak.

lol at the human cow "thing". I'm not surprised. Of course the cows body would have probably rejected it. Who knows? I'll google it though.

Yep, the last part of your post is SO true. That makes so much sense.