Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cybvax0.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) Newsgroups: net.origins Subject: Re: Comments about SOR Pamphlet #4 Message-ID: <280@cybvax0.UUCP> Date: Tue, 18-Dec-84 09:41:45 EST Article-I.D.: cybvax0.280 Posted: Tue Dec 18 09:41:45 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 19-Dec-84 02:42:32 EST References: <190@talcott.UUCP> <576@uwmacc.UUCP> Reply-To: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) Distribution: net Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA Lines: 33 Summary: In article <576@uwmacc.UUCP> dubois@uwmacc.UUCP (Paul DuBois) writes: > > You overlook the fact a chimpanzee is > > physiologically very close to a human. In fact, you could cross a chimp > > with a human! The offspring, however, would be sterile, for the same > > reason that mules are sterile. > > Can anyone verify this? I have not heard of any attempts, successful or otherwise, attempting to produce ape/human hybrids. The idea is not very far-fetched now that artificial insemination is commonplace in laboratories, hospitals, and zoos. It would be an ironic trick to play on the Nobel Laureate sperm bank in California. Talk about damage to their reputation! Not a nice thing to do to an unsuspecting mother though. There are any number of reasons why an interspecies cross might fail. There are unknown causes of spontaneous abortion at embryonic and fetal stages in some interspecies crosses. If the mother was an ape, there might be birth problems due to the larger cranial size of newborns with human genes, or perhaps premature birth of a fetus that would get larger if the mother was able to tolerate it. I'd say that it would be worth an attempt. I would not be surprised if it was successful. (Please, if we're going to discuss ethics of this sort of thing, move it to net.religion or net.philosophy.) It really would stick in the craw of creationists if they had to admit that humans and apes were "of a kind". But of course, they'd squirm away with some new BS claim equally unsupported by the facts and the Bible. -- Mike Huybensz ...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh