God schmod, I want my monkey-man!

Stop laughing - that's what they want you to do. Check PZ Myers' Pharyngula for the scoop.

It's actually a trick to ban ALL stem-cell research, because cellular research involves using solution containing mouse cells.

This is not a joke; it's a very real and likely successful strategy to get a stem-cell research ban under the radar.

The fact that the Catholic hierarchy is behind it should have been your first clue.

Does this mean a ban on the Centaur in the deoderant commercial?

Actually, there ARE human animal hybrid issues. for some reason, Washington Monthly seems to not be awware of that. Many of the stem cell research programs use animal cartilage/fibrous structures into which to grow human stem cells that then differentiate into the desired type. This type of legislation is very much going to obstruct that research. DO YOUR RESEARCH NEXT TIME, WM. This is serious and deserves serious investigative reporting

Next up, a law banning Alchemy.

What's the political motive behind this legislation, though? Is it an end-times thing?

Why don't they just go ahead and ban science in Lousiana and get it over with in one blow?

Is there anything we can do to encourage Lousiana to secede?

As a molecular biologist, I have to say that there are already human/bacterial clones growing in petri dishes. That's how we overproduce or work to understand how genes and proteins work within systems. These guys don't have a clue the limitations they are introducing to the research world.

I heard on our local news last night that Oklahoma's congress has passed a bill banning embryonic stem cell research. It goes to our governor's desk now! It's so disconcerting. We have (HAD) a growing biotech sector here now.

I admit it. I've always wanted to grow kelp-like hair.

Is there anything we can do to encourage Lousiana to secede?

If they go I call dibs on MsN when she becomes a refugee. (Relax, Bert - my house is between Acadiana and Portland.)

Ah, Angola will be able to open a new wing. But, considering ever so many inane comments from the so-called RepuG leadership, hasn't this program been around for years?

Is there anything we can do to encourage Lousiana to secede?

Just hold your fire until I get a few more plates of etouffee under my belt, mister. Then you can do whatever you want.

Thanks to those who explained the actual science this bill is attacking. Like Mr. Toad, I was trying to figure out if it was some kind of "and then the anti-Christ shall sail to these shores from an island in the Pacific and use his wits and wiles to deceive the people, and he shall create a global currency, and women shall lie down with bulls" kind of end-times thing.

These guys don't have a clue the limitations they are introducing to the research world.

I disagree. I think they know exactly what they are doing. They are banking on the average voter not only not knowing, but being highly susceptible to the "ick factor."

I admit it. I've always wanted to grow kelp-like hair.

Who hasn't, when you think of it?

http://bigmonkeytalk.com

Who hasn't, when you think of it?

Or hell, why not grow a "head" of lettuce, so instead of getting a haircut, you can have a salad!

I thought religion had no place in government. Or maybe that's just in civilized nations.

MissMudd, do we know each other? How did you know about my 'do?

But they have no problem with genetic modification taking place among animal species and humans because of pollution.

Would have been a nice place to make that point Steve instead of leaning on lame jokes.

Stop blogging now, Steve. There is nothing you can write that I won't screech about. Just hang it up.

Um... Didn't Barbara Bush, Dick Cheney, and Jesse Helms all get heart valve replacements? I believe that it's not uncommon to use heart valves from pigs for such surgery. Did these folks all get pig valves, or something else?

Are they all human-animal hybrids now?

During the earlier days of the Human Genome Project, it was necessary to get reasonably pure samples of single human chromosomes.

One way to do this was to make a hamster/human cellular fusion. The "chimeric" cells were made using a chemical that interrupts the integrity of cell membranes, encouraging cells to join together.

Or, maybe it was done by injecting human cellular nuclei into hamster cells (Chinese hamster ovary cells are often used in cell culture experiments).

In any case, the chimeric cells would lose a number of the incompatible human chromosomes as they grow and divide. The result would be a hamster cell with a single human chromosome. Its progeny would be (used to create a super race of compliant hamster/human clones to take over the world) grown in culture, and the single human chromosome would be more easily separated from the hamster chromosomes for DNA sequencing.

BG, shame that the Kansas City Southern no longer runs a splendid train between Chief'sland and 'Nawlins. "City of New Orleans"?

Wow, now the mad scientist from South Park will never be able to realize his dream of creating a conservative with 4 asses!

You needed that job, but they had to give it to a jaguar-man.

Um... Didn't Barbara Bush, Dick Cheney, and Jesse Helms all get heart valve replacements? I believe that it's not uncommon to use heart valves from pigs for such surgery. Are they all human-animal hybrids now? Posted by: Ben

Hey, anything that bans Dick Cheney sounds like good law to me.

You needed that job, but they had to give it to a jaguar-man.

Mwfffft! Best in show.

Uhm, depending on the definition, this could halt most major research.
Testing disease-causing mutations usually happens by inserting human genes into the mouse genome.
Very troubling!!!

Depending on the language defining "human-animal hybrid" there's another serious impact of this legislation to scientists. Many cancer researchers use xenografts: surgical grafts of human cancer tissue onto animals to produce cancer tissue for research. This is a major source of cancer cells for many, many ongoing research projects.

We already have a human-animal hybrid running around. It's known as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has heart valves from a pig in his heart.

Explains a lot, doesn't it???

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the insulin used to treat the majority of diabetics in this country. It's mostly produced by inserting a human gene into bacteria.

This is just like Palin denigrating fruit fly research or Jindal and the volcano monitoring. When you hear the Republicans making fun of scientific research, they are almost always talking about something that sounds ridiculous but actually saves lives.

This will put us at a severe disadvantage for the next Olympics. I hear China is prepared to unveil gazelle-man.

And I think this well effectively ban Robin Williams from preforming in LA.

I have personally put human genes in fruit flies! (no blue eyes though!) And I presently have a coworker who is working on putting a human gene in ameoba!!

Ignorance is bliss for those knuckleheads I guess.

And Oklahoma has passed a bill to ban embryonic stem cell research in the state. No one knows whether the Dem governor will veto it or not, or whether the lege could override a veto.

The governorship is on the table and will probably be won by a con and we have a majority con lege. Any hope that responsible leaders had for the state has long gone out the window.

Quit joking people. That bat boy on the cover of the Weekly World News is one freaky looking critter.

Now if only some much needed scrutiny was given to what the folks at Monsanto are doing to plant genetics instead of wasting our time on animal-human hybrid talk. BTW, if you set aside our sense of human exceptionalism, we are animals.

do you suppose that if there aren't any human-animal hybrids that there will be enough horse's asses left to make up the rushpublican party?

I think they're more worried about stuff like this. More specifically, infusing human DNA into animal eggs and embryos...

This is common, and presumably, conservatives in Louisiana don't want to ban the medical research.

Why would one presume this?

I personally was working on creating a hybrid that had the body of a human and the brain of cat feces, but they kept voting Republican so I had to pull the plug on the whole thing.

No matter what these idiotic politicians decide, I will not stop my nefarious scheme to create a herd of 180-IQ-score Socialist moose that can accurately aim and fire a motorized heavy-artillery gun at low-flying hunters of the Alaskan persuasion. They can have my research when they pry it from my cold, dead hand.

Bwah.

Hah.

Hah.

First: Humans are animals. The regular republicans continue to try to show people have some sort of the "divine" in them.

Second: As note above human and animal cells have been used for decades to create everything from immunizations to insulin.

Third: Even if we created human/animal hybrids would that be so bad? Think of the ancient Egyptian gods and the attributes they represented, they were obviously the result of genetic engineering.

Sun: Ra - head of falcon
Destruction: Sekhmet - head of lion
Desert: Seth - animal head with long curved snout
Pharoah: Horus - head of hawk
Wisdom: Thoth - head of ibis
Embalming: Anubis - head of jackal
Cats: Bastet - head of cat

When the sequence of the human genome was first released it was about 80% human and 20% other including mouse and fruit fly. Wasn't there a movie about a human-like fly? Be afraid, be very afraid.....

This is common, and presumably, conservatives in Louisiana don't want to ban the medical research
.
Don't be so sure.

An ethical question

What if we altered pigs so that they had human skin and grew human livers and hearts.

This would provide a ready supply of transplant organs many of which would go to waste at the slaughter house.

Would this be ethical? Would it be ethical to eat human skin grown by a pig?

Here in New Orleans, at least, no one wants to secede. Although sometimes it feels like the rest of America seceded from us, starting in 2005.

Ben: "Um... Didn't Barbara Bush, Dick Cheney, and Jesse Helms all get heart valve replacements? I believe that it's not uncommon to use heart valves from pigs for such surgery. Are they all human-animal hybrids now?"

You're suggesting that Dick Cheney is part human?

Any Cerebus readers out there (specifically, The Last Day collection)? This legislation ought to make Dave Sim happy. Oh, Shep-Shep...

They're abhorred at the results of inbreeding in Louisianna and are looking for some scientists to blame it on.

There have been dozens of sightings of a manbearpig over the past decade in Colorado. I'm serial.

"[S]cientists would face up to 10 years in prison for human-animal hybrids."
This is the state of the law in Canada. In addition to a max of 10 years in prison, the Assisted Human Reproduction Act also provides for fines up to half a million dollars.

So when we find that we can clone organs at 10 times the usual rate if we use genetically hypoallergenic mouse DNA and we could save thousands of lives, we'll buy the technology from the South Koreans / Chinese / Japanese / Indians at top dollar because some Pope worshiper wanted to enforce his idea of God's will on the rest of us because his holy book told him to.

Meh. Whatever.
It's an odd thing living in a wannabe theocracy.