While there are certainly some rather profound advantages to living within our medically-advanced era, there are also some serious concerns over just how far science is willing to go.
We are fast approaching what many people would consider “playing God” territory, however, in which we find ourselves tinkering with the very elemental building blocks of humanity and her distinction from the animal kingdom.
This week, a wild new line was crossed by doctors and medical professionals, and it has the world in a bit of a tizzy.
Scientists have transplanted human brain cells into the brains of baby rats, where the cells grew and formed connections.
It’s part of an effort to better study human brain development and diseases affecting this most complex of organs, which makes us who we are but has long been shrouded in mystery.
Some believed that this would allow mankind to make short work of several debilitating diseases.
“Many disorders such as autism and schizophrenia are likely uniquely human” but “the human brain certainly has not been very accessible,” said said Dr. Sergiu Pasca, senior author of a study describing the work, published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Approaches that don’t involve taking tissue out of the human brain are “promising avenues in trying to tackle these conditions.”
Of course, the concept of growing human brain cells within a rat is a wild one, and likely crosses a line in our conscience beyond which we imagine science creating an massive array of chimeras and interspecies monsters
