Prayer Alert: Ethical Outrage as Scientists Create "Human-Sheep"
AP/TN : Mar 26, 2007
AP, CBN News
REPORTER'S NOTE: Shortly before I "got saved" in 1980, I read Alvin Toffler's Future Shock. Not long after that, someone gave me Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth to read. Both books had a huge impact on me, ultimately drawing me to the Word of God and Christ Jesus. Although I don't presume to know whether Alvin Toffler is a Christian or not, his book was groundbreaking in as much as he was able to—with uncanny accuracy—predict the future from a purely scientific perspective. The Late Great Planet Earth took the future to another level, by the spirit, simply by revealing prophecies in ancient scripture. Thousands of years ago—without the scientific roadmaps Toffler had at his disposal—God revealed the future to us through His Word and science can ultimately only confirm it.
I will never forget my feelings of disbelief and revulsion when I read Toffler's assertion that in our lifetime we would not only witness the advent of human cloning, but fully human-animal hybrids as well. Those feelings returned with a vengeance yesterday when I read that researchers in America have just "created" a sheep with half-human organs. Who does man think he is? Where will this lead? What must God think? What should our response be? Do we run to the caves and cower in shame, calling for the wrath of God to come quickly upon the earth, or—like Abraham or Jonah—do we plead forgiveness and ask God to change the hearts of man, thus changing the society we live in? Let us pray... —Teresa Neumann, BCN.
University of Nevada Professor Esmail Zanjani has reportedly spent seven years injecting adult human cells into sheep fetuses. As a result, the animals that were produced were considered to be 15-percent human. (Photo: CBN News)
Of course, the argument is that this development will make it easier to use animal organs when people need transplants, but that excuse is doing little to quell the outrage it has sparked. Even scientists are fearing the possibility of silent viruses—harmless in animals—being introduced into the human race.
Dr. Patrick Dixon, an international lecturer on biological trends, warned, "Many silent viruses could create a biological nightmare in humans. Mutant animal viruses are a real threat, as we have seen with HIV."