This is scary...

MSNBC - Of mice, men and in-between:

In Minnesota, pigs are being born with human blood in their veins. In Nevada, there are sheep whose livers and hearts are largely human. In California, mice peer from their cages with human brain cells firing inside their skulls.

The most radical experiment, still not conducted, would be to inject human stem cells into an animal embryo and then transfer that chimeric embryo into an animal's womb. Scientists suspect the proliferating human cells would spread throughout the animal embryo as it matured into a fetus and integrate themselves into every organ.

But few scientists are eager to do that experiment. The risk, they say, is that some human cells will find their way to the developing testes or ovaries, where they might grow into human sperm and eggs. If two such chimeras — say, mice — were to mate, a human embryo might form, trapped in a mouse. Not everyone agrees that this would be a terrible result. "What would be so dreadful?" asked Ann McLaren, a renowned developmental biologist at the University of Cambridge in England. After all, she said, no human embryo could develop successfully in a mouse womb. It would simply die, she told the academy. No harm done.

No harm done? These are living beings we're talking about here, folks. I realize that most of the Pagan community is pro-choice when it comes to abortion, and they'll see nothing wrong with her statement since she's talking about a human baby, but I can guarantee they'll get all bent out of shape because animals are involved. They'd probably get a high-tech medical team together to do a mouse cesarean to save the life of the mouse. The human? Disposable. And If this doesn't send chills down your spine, then I don't know how you look yourself in the mirror every morning. - From The Daily Spork