by Mike James

According to Wikipedia, a genetic chimerism or chimera is a single organism composed of cells with more than one distinct genotype. A genotype is the genetic material of an organism. So, in other words, a genetic chimera is similar to the mythological chimeras, like a griffin, a half-eagle and half-lion-like beast.

Last year scientists successfully grew monkey embryos with human cells. Human stem cells were injected into monkey embryos, and they grew in a petri dish, with three of the embryos surviving for up to 19 days.

Why was this done? Scientists hope that these chimeras could be better models for them to test drugs and grow human organs for transplants.

According to Izpisua Belmonte, a member of the scientific team for this project, nobody plans to implant any hybrid embryos into monkeys. Instead, the goal is to understand better how cells from different animals communicate with each other in the embryo during the early growth stage.

There are international guidelines for this type of research. But the guidelines sometimes have to catch up with advances being made in this particular field of research. The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) recommends additional oversight when we reach a place where human cells can integrate with an animal host's developing central nervous system.

Many countries have limited research on chimeras involving human cells. But in 2019, Japan lifted a ban on experiments using animal embryos and human cells and began funding such research.

In 2015, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) stopped funding for studies where human cells would be put into animal embryos.

After reading up a bit on this subject, I thought about the statement in Genesis 11:5-6: "And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, 'Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.'"

Some conjecture that humanity was getting too advanced or ahead of itself, so God slowed them down by confusing the languages. Others think men were trying to become like gods in creating this high tower. Some think the tower was an astrological worship center. Others believe God wanted mankind to spread out over the earth. We can agree that God was not happy with what man was doing, and I don't think God is happy with where advances in mixing human and animal cells could lead.

Even though there are ethical standards among scientists, I'm concerned about possibilities in the future in this area. As knowledge increases (Daniel 12:4), will we try to create our own Frankenstein monster?

History shows we have already made attempts at this. In the 1920's Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov, a Soviet scientist inseminated three female chimpanzees with human sperm, and none of the apes were able to become pregnant. Reports also surfaced in China in the 1980s about an attempt at human-chimp crossbreeding conducted in China in the 1960s. Once again, the reports cite a female chimpanzee being injected with human sperm.

If our societies continue to move further from God and His Word, I believe there will be less restraint within future scientific communities to stop us from this type of experimentation.

My concern is science will make breakthroughs in the future that might make human-ape chimeras possible. I don't think that is a good idea because of what I read in Genesis. In Genesis 1:24-26, we read about God saying He made animals after their kind. The implication is that we should not mess with how God set up categories of creatures. Obviously, there can be variety within a specific kind of creature. Dog breeding has led to variations of the dog kind, but they are all still of the dog kind. God obviously made man after the God kind, and any attempt to alter that is entering territory we should not tread upon.

We are living in very interesting times. Man's capabilities and knowledge have obviously helped society in numerous ways. Here I'm thinking about technology, medicine, energy, food production, and inventions. But those same capabilities and knowledge have created threats to our very existence. Here I'm thinking about nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that can wipe out vast numbers of people.

Will our quest for further knowledge and experimentation create a scenario where God again will have to step in as He did at Babel?

Sources: "First monkey-human embryos reignite debate over hybrid animals," by Nidhi Subbaraman, Nature, Nature.com, April 15, 2021.

"The Monkey Man," by Norbert Lieth, Midnight Call, March 2022.

"Humanzee," Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanzee.

"What Happened at the Tower of Babel," by John D. Morris, October 1, 2003, Institute for Creation Research, https://www.icr.org/article/what-happened-at-tower-babel.

"What Happened at the Tower of Babel," Got Questions, https://www.gotquestions.org/Tower-of-Babel.html.