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The Ethics of Crossing Humans with Animals | Glenn Cohen | Big Think

Big Think | September 7, 2025



The Ethics of Crossing Humans with Animals |
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Harvard bioethics specialist Glenn Cohen considers the complex question of whether humans should mix their genetic material with other animals to create chimeras.It is really, really fun when Harvard professors play ‘What If…’. This is a regular part of Glenn Cohen’s work as a law professor specializing in health policy, bioethics and biotech. Invoking the Jurassic Park rule of ‘just because you can, doesn’t mean you should’ and imagining all eventualities is how Cohen explores the fascinating and sometimes twisted intricacies driving our ethical dilemmas.

It’s particularly fun on the topic of chimeras, which broadly defined is research that mixes human and animal genetic material. Cohen lists some real cases as examples: mixing human brain cells into mice brains, or humanizing a mouse’s immune system to carry out studies that yield results relevant to humans. Former U.S. senator Jesse Helms had a pig valve placement in his heart many years ago. To make a more imaginative leap, what about a gorilla with a human face? How would we feel about that?

Cohen discusses a few key ethical arguments surrounding our hesitancy to mix interspecies genetic material, then moves onto a hypothetical concerning Sesame Street’s Big Bird, and surmises that when it comes to this ethical area, decisions can really only be made on a case by case basis. Some changes simply are more unethical or sociologically disturbing to humans, and here Cohen cites his friend and colleague at Stanford Law School, Professor Henry T. Greely, who sums it up nicely with three words: brains, balls, and faces. Those are the things that make us most uncomfortable in genetic mixing, perhaps because they are definitive markers of what it is to be human.

The jury might be out on chimeras, but at least you have some insight into how a bioethicist’s mind works.
Glenn Cohen’s book is Patients with Passports: Medical Tourism, Law, and Ethics.
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PROFESSOR, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL :

Prof. Glenn Cohen is one of the world’s leading experts on the intersection of bioethics (sometimes also called “medical ethics”) and the law, as well as health law. He also teaches civil procedure. From Seoul to Krakow to Vancouver, Professor Cohen has spoken at legal, medical, and industry conferences around the world and his work has appeared in or been covered on PBS, NPR, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, Mother Jones, the New York Times, the New Republic, the Boston Globe, and several other media venues.
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TRANSCRIPT :

Glenn Cohen: So a recent set of controversies has to do with the funding by the federal government about a research that mixes human and animal genetic material sometimes called chimeras, but there’s actually a broader – so again, the method is to think about a large number of cases; it’s helpful to think about very different cases. So to use some real cases imagine you mixed human brain cells, so human brain stem cells in the embryonic stage into a mouse to create a mouse with a humanized brain and it wouldn’t be a human brain. It isn’t exactly the same. It’s much smaller, for example, but has humanized elements. Another example is imagine you took a gorilla, treated the gorilla exactly as it is but were able to generate a human looking face, so a gorilla with a human face, how would we think about that entity?

Third example, humanized immune system. Took a mouse and we do this with, we have these at Harvard, for example, and created an immune system in order to test drugs, think about HIV, for example, that was humanized. So not the brain but just the immune system was very human like. And last example is actually valve replacements, heart valve replacements. So Jesse Helms, a senator had a pig valve placement years ago so there’s a piece of an animal in him. So these are four examples of different kinds of mixing and the question is which are okay and which are not okay? Why can we generate some principles? So what might be wrong with mixing human and animal parts? So one thing that might be wrong is that we think it will confuse the boundaries between humans and animals, that right now we have a pretty clear distinction. Many people love their dogs and their cats like members of the family. They are able to say this is not a member of my family. This is not a member that has the same rights as my family member. In a world where we had much more of a continuum between animals and human beings those distinctions would become difficult.

Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/glenn-cohen-on-the-ethics-of-human-and-animal-hybrids

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Comments

This post currently has 49 comments.

  1. @emmareyes8114

    September 7, 2025 at 11:15 pm

    ALLOWED human rights? Honey, chimeras with a human-like brain and conscience will NOT be asking for rights. They will taking them BY FORCE. Egyptians had chimeras as Gods, the humans were slaves…of the chimeras. You think they worked for the chimeras by choice? We thought chimeras were a myth, theyre not. Food for thought. People are assuming chimeras will have a lower intellect than humans, BIG MISTAKE.

  15. @MovieRiotHD

    September 7, 2025 at 11:15 pm

    Amazing, thank you! This should be the basis as to start a conversation about abortion! In my estimation 90% of people express a strong opinion despite having no clue wtf they are talking about. This discussion needs to be had in a civilized and careful manner.

  19. @corinawhite6457

    September 7, 2025 at 11:15 pm

    I wish or hope some of us humans that feeling less of human could become a human puppy dog any other to what ever animal they wish to be but I wish to be a human puppy dog I would love to be a pet that where I feel I belong as this world so crazy as hell lately where humans can pick on others to get them so much broken and get them so hurt where they don't give a hoot about it all I find this so sad and it not true we are one that is a big fib a lie and bullshit and find it not 100 per cent true only ones the one are loveed and needed and whated that it how sad this world has become full of crazy people bullshit of hate and unkind and unfair and judgemental people to😶🙁😒😣🍼🧷🐾

  21. @antoniolim762

    September 7, 2025 at 11:15 pm

    Ethical…is our concern???….not that it works perfectly because ya know it will save lives (no matter what your age, gender, race or creed is at that)???…now, if by ethical you mean we will prevent the hijackings and monopoly for profit of the process so ALL can afford it and get the benefit of it's service and not turn it to another "insulin" story…by all means let's make it ethical…(>.>)

  31. @sonofthemosthighgod7810

    September 7, 2025 at 11:15 pm

    When you begin to see these things, you know the end is at hand. This is not a new concept, it has always been around but it is making a serious comeback, that is why God destroyed the entire world in the flood, only Noah and his family were found to be perfect humans.
    The growing acceptance of hybridization by the public is a very bad sign of bad things to çome.

  34. @marvawhite7091

    September 7, 2025 at 11:15 pm

    And we know that there is nothing née under the sun, Ecclesiastics. Have we considered that we are not the first to desire to do this? What was happening in the day of Noah that God flooded the earth and saved 8 human beings? Is that same thing taking place today? What is the real reason for all the floods occurring today? Mankind must wake up now! God is not mocked! Everything that can be shaken is shaking right now.

  35. @cj.t.7321

    September 7, 2025 at 11:15 pm

    I read that 'Scientists' in Japan HAD managed to 'make' 'Human/Ape'
    Living, Growing Fetuses! It Said that the Fetuses were growing, and Doing Very WELL- but Then- after
    7 to 12 weeks, They Destroyed these Fetuses! Yeah Right! If 'They' HAD Managed to get the
    Fetuses to Grow- I Do NOT Believe that 'They' Destroyed THESE Fetuses!!! Just Saying!

  49. @mossymaple

    September 7, 2025 at 11:15 pm

    *REPENT! GOD WARNS AGAINST THIS ABOMINATION OF MIXING DNA. AS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH THE SATANIC FALLEN ANGELS DISCERN THE SAME THING . AND GOD FLOODED THE ENTIRE EARTH POPULATION. IN THE END SAY WE LIVE IN NOW GOD SAID IT WOULD BE AS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH. REPENT!

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