Medical Monday: I wish I understood this better!

The headlines are a little scary!

Monkeys Born from Stem Cells

Chimeric Monkeys Born in Stem Cell Study

Chimeric Monkeys Boast Six Genetic Identities

First I needed to look up the word "Chimeric." Which, according to Merriam-Webster means: "relating to, derived from, or being a genetic chimera or its genetic material." So I looked up the term Chimeric and came up with this:

a fire-breathing she-monster in Greek mythology having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts

So, that made it a little more scary .... so I investigated further and looked up the medical definition and came up with this: An individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution

Still pretty scary! So I started reading the articles. And I admittidly did not fully understand what they were talking about. But several phrases made me even more nervous:

"cloning primate and even human stem cells, into living breathing organisms"

"More interestingly, although they have both male and female DNA, they are all developing as males, because masculine genes have dominated the monkeys development"

Science is not my area of expertise. I won't even try and pretend otherwise. But I do understand the basic need for stem cell research. And I am torn. I understand the desire to be able to regenerate organs to save lives; the desire to use stem cells to treate Type 1 Diabetes and the desire to relieve symptoms of Parkinson's Disease. But it is scary.

My dad remembers when things like stem cell technology were part of comics. I remember when video phones were on the The Jetsons and yet today even my Nana Skypes. So, I look to todays science fiction (movies like Children of Men, I am Legend even Project X); creating life from a petri dish scares me. My fear is are we playing God and what will the consequences of that be?

I completely understand the desire to end pain and save lives. But what if we are not supposed to? What if this is how the human population contains growth? I would love to find a cure for Lupus. I would love to find a cure for small cell lung cancer (a disease a very good family friend was recently diagnosed with). But at what cost?

I don't have the answers. I am not even going to try and have the answers to these questions. It hurts my head enough to get through the articles. But a future of genetically modified children, genetically modified food, growing organs in a petri dish, creating life in a lab scares me ~ I think it should scare all of us to the point that we keep a closer eye on the people push the line in the sand a little bit further all the time.