Crispr Life Forms

Some time ago we addressed the question, What is it like to be human? ( MM 9/10/18 What's It Like Being Human), even as we recognized the question itself suggested the human species walks around enveloped in the narcissistic certainty that our dominant intelligence allows us to dismiss all the other sentient creatures on the planet. How about what's it like to be a dolphin? What's it like to be a non-human primate?

Easy distinctions fell away in the ensuing discussion e.g. the self-awareness perception in dolphins begins around the age of one and a half years, just like in humans. Yet, we seem to have perfected the technique of physical and psychological dissociation when it comes to non-human animals, regarding them as having been placed on earth for our convenience, be it for our amusement or as mere foodstuff. 

Or replacement parts.

Per our focus article (The Moral Status Of Human-Monkey Chimeras), a very recent breakthrough in genetic engineering, called blastocyst complementation, has furthered the way of regenerative medicine to include the prospect of replacing failing human organs with those harvested from a human/animal hybrid. The prospect is still early-age but is the next logical step in the rapidly-developing world of CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) --  a tool to rewrite the genome sequence of at least small regions of the genome (a technique, by the way, learned from the way bacteria defends itself from viruses). Such genetic engineering "erases" that part of the human genome sequence responsible for such genetic diseases as sickle cell anemia and Parkinsons.

This month's announced breakthrough, however, is the gateway to the creation of the world's first human-monkey life form, created by injecting human stem cells into a monkey embryo. Should the embryo be implanted into a monkey uterus, this so-called chimeric embryo could theoretically develop into a live-born animal that has cells from both a monkey and a human.

While there is nothing new in fusing the embryos of two animals together or replicating a genetic animal sequence (think "Dolly"), this new technique enables the fine-tuning of and greater control over the injection of human cells into the embryo. Properly engineered editing of stem cells thus would mean the replacement organs would have enough host cells to avoid the body's natural immune rejection response.

So far, so good, yet potential ethical and philosophical questions abound i.e. how should we treat other life forms? At the most basic level is the blurring of the moral line between species, opening us up to recognizing that humans are on a continuum with other animals. Aristotle proposed we should strive for a common explanation of how animals, including human animals, perceive, desire, and move. 

Most engrossing is the prospect of a chimera incorporating enough human brain cells to support human-like cognition in a non-human body, thereby raising the question of a bestowed moral status. Might such status give rise to the chimera's moral right to refuse its sacrifice? 

Does a human have a soul? What does that even mean? Can a non-human primate possess a soul? Would a chimera?

Supplementing, then, the above intro to our MM 5/3/21 session are the powerful words of member Mo Siegel who will be our lead in the follow-on MM 5/10/21 session, centered around his planned CRISPR presentation . . . . . as you read Mo's introduction to that session, consider his opening sentiment that were he again age 25 and embarking on a career, he'd probably choose this direction over the founding Celestial Seasonings, no small statement given that company's block-buster success . . . per Mo:

"If I were 25 and it was 2018, I would start a biotech CRISPR gene therapy company and not a tea company. CRISPR cas9 is one of the most startling, positive, and life-changing discoveries destined to transform the lives of future generations. It also upends our morals and ethics and forces the consideration of life without world laws. Considering the discovery was made in 2012, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, receiving the Nobel prize in Chemistry for the discovery just 8 years later, is a testament to its power.

 My PowerPoint presentation is a layman's understanding of the science, current activities, and potential of CRISPR cas9. After the presentation, there's plenty of time to discuss CRISPR. BTW, if you think CRISPR cas9 is a game-changer, how about the recent discoveries of CRISPR cas12, 13a, 13b, 13c, and 13d? We are in the first inning and the first pitch was just thrown."