Parahuman
Encyclopedia
Chimera (genetics)
A chimera or chimaera is a single organism that is composed of two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated from different zygotes involved in sexual reproduction. If the different cells have emerged from the same zygote, the organism is called a mosaic...
. Scientists have done extensive research into the mixing of gene
Gene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
s or cell
Cell (biology)
The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....
s from different species, e.g. adding human (and other animal) genes to bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
and farm animals to mass-produce insulin
Insulin
Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
and spider silk
Spider silk
Spider silk is a protein fiber spun by spiders. Spiders use their silk to make webs or other structures, which function as nets to catch other animals, or as nests or cocoons for protection for their offspring...
protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
s, and introducing human cells into mouse embryo
Embryo
An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
s.
Human-animal hybrids and chimeras
Parahumans have been referred to as "human-animal hybrids" in a vernacular sense that also encompasses human-animal chimeras. The term parahuman is not used in scientific publications. The term is sometimes used to sensationalize research that involves mixing biological materials from humans and other species. It was used in a National Geographic article to describe an experiment in 2003, during which Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs. According to Daily Mail, as of 2011, more than 150 human-animal hybrid embryos were created in British laboratories since the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008
The Bill's discussion in Parliament did not permit time to debate whether it should extend abortion rights under the Abortion Act 1967 to also cover Northern Ireland...
.
Rationale
There are several reasons for which parahumans or chimeras might be created. The current forms of chimeraChimera (genetics)
A chimera or chimaera is a single organism that is composed of two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated from different zygotes involved in sexual reproduction. If the different cells have emerged from the same zygote, the organism is called a mosaic...
exist for medical and industrial purposes, e.g., production of drugs and of organs suitable for organ transplantation. Other experiments aim to reveal knowledge about the function of the human body, e.g., by creating mice with a human-like immune system
Immune system
An immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own...
to study AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
or with a brain incorporating human nerve cells. Restrictions on cloning
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
and stem cell
Stem cell
This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
research have made chimera research an attractive alternative.
If a line of parahumans could be created using germline engineering, if they also bred true, and if they were different enough from ordinary humans to be unable to breed with us, then they would qualify as a species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
. Parahumans created using only somatic
Somatic
The term somatic means 'of the body',, relating to the body. In medicine, somatic illness is bodily, not mental, illness. The term is often used in biology to refer to the cells of the body in contrast to the germ line cells which usually give rise to the gametes...
genetic engineering would have human children. Another key difference is that a germ-line parahuman would have to be modified before birth, while a somatic parahuman could be an adult human who chooses to be modified. Which one is more ethical is a matter of debate. An argument for the former is that no harm is done to a person born with modified genes because the person would have had no control over their genes in the first place. An argument for the latter being more ethical is that the changes would be made with informed consent
Informed consent
Informed consent is a phrase often used in law to indicate that the consent a person gives meets certain minimum standards. As a literal matter, in the absence of fraud, it is redundant. An informed consent can be said to have been given based upon a clear appreciation and understanding of the...
.
Ethics
There is no scientific field of parahuman research. Ethical, moral, and legal issues of parahuman research are speculative extensions of existing issues that arise in actual research.In contrast, some transhumanists see this technology as one of many ways to overcome fundamental human limitations, such as disease and aging, and point out the many potential commercial and medical benefits. The debate can also be seen in terms of individual freedom to use germinal choice technology
Germinal choice technology
Germinal choice technology refers to a set of reprogenetic technologies that, currently or that are expected to in the future, allow parents to influence the genetic constitutions of their children...
or reprogenetics
Reprogenetics
Reprogenetics is a term referring to the merging of reproductive and genetic technologies expected to happen in the near future as techniques like germinal choice technology become more available and more powerful. The term was coined by Lee M...
.
Other ethical issues (shared with genetic engineering
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...
in general) involve the legal and moral status of a hybrid individual or race, whether the decision-making power over its creation should lie with governments or individuals, whether a distinction should be drawn between strictly medical treatments (restoring lost function) and those enhancing humans above some "normal" standard, whether medical ethics
Medical ethics
Medical ethics is a system of moral principles that apply values and judgments to the practice of medicine. As a scholarly discipline, medical ethics encompasses its practical application in clinical settings as well as work on its history, philosophy, theology, and sociology.-History:Historically,...
allow doctors to offer parahuman-related treatments, and whether xenotransplantation
Xenotransplantation
Xenotransplantation , is the transplantation of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another. Such cells, tissues or organs are called xenografts or xenotransplants...
poses risks of cross-species disease transfer.
The developmental biologist Stuart Newman
Stuart Newman
Stuart Alan Newman is a professor of cell biology and anatomy at New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY, United States. His research centers around three program areas: cellular and molecular mechanisms of vertebrate limb development, physical mechanisms of morphogenesis, and mechanisms of...
applied for a patent on a human-nonhuman chimera in 1997 as a challenge to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Congress on the patentability of organisms.
In the United States of America, H.R. 5910 is a House Resolution entitled Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act of 2008. Representative Chris Smith (R
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, NJ
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
-4
New Jersey's 4th congressional district
New Jersey's 4th Congressional District elects one member of congress by the first past the post method, it is currently represented by Republican Chris Smith. He has represented the district since 1981....
) introduced it into the House on April 24, 2008. The same bill was introduced as S.2358 by Sen. Sam Brownback
Sam Brownback
Samuel Dale "Sam" Brownback is the 46th and current Governor of Kansas. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1996 to 2011, and as a U.S. Representative for Kansas's 2nd congressional district from 1995 to 1996...
(R
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, KS
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
) into the Senate on November 15, 2007.
Parahumans in fiction
Science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
authors sometimes use the term parahuman to refer to distinct "races" of human-like creatures created through genetic engineering
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...
. A parahuman created starting from a nonhuman-animal template could be considered a biological uplift
Biological uplift
In science fiction, uplift is the development or transformation of animals into an intelligent race by other, already-intelligent beings. The concept appears in David Brin's Uplift series and other science fiction works.-History of the concept:...
, as in the works of David Brin
David Brin
Glen David Brin, Ph.D. is an American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. He has received the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards.-Biography:...
, while a parahuman based more closely on the human form and genome might also be called posthuman
Posthuman
Posthuman may refer to:*Posthuman, a hypothetical future being whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer human by our current standards...
or transhuman
Transhuman
Transhuman or trans-human is a term that has been defined and redefined many times in history. In its contemporary usage, “transhuman” refers to an intermediary form between the human and the hypothetical posthuman.-History of hypotheses:...
. The role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
Transhuman Space
Transhuman Space
Transhuman Space is a role-playing game published by Steve Jackson Games as parts of the "Powered by GURPS" line. Set in the year 2100, humanity has begun to colonize the Solar System...
and the related book "GURPS
GURPS
The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting...
Bio-Tech
GURPS Bio-Tech
"The Future is Alive"GURPS Bio-Tech is a GURPS, the Generic Universal Role Playing Game, sourcebook that covers the implementation of biotechnology in the game. The first edition of the book was written for GURPS Third Edition while the second edition of GURPS Bio-Tech was written for GURPS...
" use the term parahuman interchangeably with variant human to refer to a wide array of heavily modified racial templates. These range from a "Gilgamesh-Series" resembling normal humans but with increased lifespan; a "Lepus-Series" resembling anthropomorphic rabbits; to a "Tek Rat" described as a mix of human, raccoon, and possum. The television series Dark Angel
Dark Angel (TV series)
Dark Angel is an American biopunk/cyberpunk science fiction television series created by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee. The show premiered in the United States on the Fox network on October 3, 2000, and was canceled after two seasons...
featured a group of parahumans (referred to in the series as "transgenics") with animal DNA selected to enhance their abilities to serve as supersoldier
Supersoldier
Supersoldier is a term often used to describe a soldier that operates beyond normal human limits or abilities. Supersoldiers are common in science fiction literature, films, TV programs, computer, conspiracy theories, and video games, but have also made appearances in other related genres, such as...
s. In Chapterhouse: Dune, by Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...
, there is a species called Futar
Futar
Futars are a fictional race in the Dune universe, introduced briefly in Heretics of Dune and appearing in Chapterhouse: Dune and Hunters of Dune. They are primitive, humanoid creatures, brought as captives to the "million planets" by the Honored Matres...
; they are a genetically engineered human/feline hybrid trained to kill the Honored Matres
Honored Matres
The Honored Matres are a fictional matriarchal organization in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. They are described as an aggressive cult obsessed with power, violence and sexual domination...
. The TV miniseries First Born
First Born
First Born is a British television serial produced by the BBC in 1988.Charles Dance starred as genetic researcher Edward Forester, whose work leads him to create a man-gorilla hybrid, using his own sperm and cells taken from a female gorilla...
dealt with the subject of a geneticist, portrayed by Charles Dance
Charles Dance
Walter Charles Dance, OBE is an English actor, screenwriter and director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains. His most famous roles are Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown , Dr Clemens, the doctor of penitentiary Fury 161, who becomes Ellen Ripley's confidante in Alien 3 ,...
, who created a human-gorilla hybrid. John Scalzi's Old Man's war Series also includes parahumans, where elderly 'soldiers' are mentally transferred into a forcegrown body that, though humanoid, has animal characteristics to help it be a better soldier. In Will Self
Will Self
William Woodard "Will" Self is an English novelist and short story writer. His fictional style is known for being satirical, grotesque, and fantastical. He is a prolific commentator on contemporary British life, with regular appearances on Newsnight and Question Time...
's novel The Book of Dave
The Book of Dave
- Content :The Book of Dave tells the story of an angry and mentally-ill London taxi driver named Dave Rudman, who writes and has printed on metal a book of his rantings against women and thoughts on custody rights for fathers. These stem from his anger with his ex-wife, Michelle, who he believes...
, set partly in the present day and partly in a post-apocalyptic far future, pig-like parahuman creatures called "motos" feature strongly in the futuristic chapters. It is implied that they are descendents of hybrids created in a genetic laboratory operating in modern-day London.
Parahumans are a useful tool for the science fiction writer, because they offer ways to explore issues of personhood, racism, alienation, religion, and freedom, and to make more plausible the colonization of exotic environments, such as the ocean or planets with non-Earthlike properties.
One famous work involving parahumans (though not referred to as such) is The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Island of Doctor Moreau is an 1896 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells. It is told from the point of view of a man named Edward Prendick who is shipwrecked, rescued by a passing boat, and then left at the ship's destination by the crew along with the ship's cargo of exotic animals...
by H.G. Wells. During the Golden Age of Science Fiction, Cordwainer Smith
Cordwainer Smith
Cordwainer Smith – pronounced CORDwainer – was the pseudonym used by American author Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger for his science fiction works. Linebarger was a noted East Asia scholar and expert in psychological warfare...
's parahuman underpeople (humans derived from animal stock) were an important part of his Instrumentality stories. More recently, Caitlín R. Kiernan
Caitlin R. Kiernan
Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan is the author of many science fiction and dark fantasy works, including seven novels, many comic books, more than one hundred published short stories, novellas, and vignettes, and numerous scientific papers.- Overview :Born in Dublin, Ireland, she moved to the United States...
, who has described herself as a parahumanist, has explored the subject of parahumans in a number of science fiction stories, including The Dry Salvages
The Dry Salvages (novella)
The Dry Salvages is a futuristic science fiction story of novella length by Caitlín R. Kiernan, published in 2004 as a stand-alone hardback volume by Subterranean Press. The story consists of two parallel narratives, one set in the novella's present-day and the other in the novel's past...
, "Riding the White Bull", and "Faces in Revolving Souls". John Crowley
John Crowley
John Crowley is an American author of fantasy, science fiction and mainstream fiction. He studied at Indiana University and has a second career as a documentary film writer...
, in his novel Beasts
Beasts (John Crowley)
Beasts is a novel by John Crowley,published in 1976 by Doubleday.-Plot summary:Beasts describes a world in which genetically engineered animals are given a variety of human characteristics. Painter is a leo, a combination of man and lion...
, centered his plot around lion-human hybrids, with a lone fox-human hybrid acting as a kingmaker
Kingmaker
Kingmaker is a term originally applied to the activities of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick — "Warwick the Kingmaker" — during the Wars of the Roses in England. The term has come to be applied more generally to a person or group that has great influence in a royal or political succession,...
. H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
's short story Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family involves the repercussions of the mating of a white explorer and a white she-ape and their having offspring.
Humor authors such as Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray
Sukumar Ray , , was a Bengali humorous poet, story writer and playwright who mainly wrote for children. As perhaps the most famous Indian practitioner of literary nonsense, he is often compared to Lewis Carroll...
in Bangla have had parahuman characters in their writings. More recently, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a fictional team of four teenage anthropomorphic turtles, who were trained by their anthropomorphic rat sensei in the art of ninjutsu and named after four Renaissance artists...
, Maximum Ride
Maximum Ride
Maximum Ride is a series of young adult science fiction and fantasy novels by American author James Patterson. The series chronicles the lives of six fugitive kids – Max, Fang, Iggy, Gasman, Nudge, and Angel – known collectively as the Flock...
, Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal Alchemist
, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. The world of Fullmetal Alchemist is styled after the European Industrial Revolution...
, and Blue Submarine No.6 are themed around human-animal hybrids.
In old civilizations, parahuman characters are a crucial part of mythologies such as Hanuman (a combination of monkey and human), Narsimha (a combination of lion and human) and Ganesha (a combination of elephant and human) among Hindus and Sphinx in Egyptian civilization. As well as Satyr
Satyr
In Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are often associated with pipe-playing....
s, Centaur
Centaur
In Greek mythology, a centaur or hippocentaur is a member of a composite race of creatures, part human and part horse...
s, and Minotaur
Minotaur
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur , as the Greeks imagined him, was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, "part man and part bull"...
s in ancient Greek myths. Enkidu, a main character in the Babylonian poem "The Epic of Gilgamesh" can be considered a parahuman.
In the 2010 horror/sci-fi movie Splice
Splice (film)
Splice is a 2009 Canadian/French science fiction horror film directed by Vincenzo Natali and starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley. The story concerns experiments in genetic engineering being done by a young scientist couple who attempt to introduce human DNA into their work of splicing animal...
, two scientists create a new organism named Dren ("nerd" spelled backwards) by splicing animal and human DNA. However, the organism turns out to be dangerous. The animal DNA used to create Dren was that of a frog, a kangaroo, a donkey, an insect, a finch-like bird, a chicken, and a plant.
There is a creature called the Adlet
Adlet
The Adlet in the Inuit mythology of Greenland and the Labrador and Hudson Bay coasts, are a race of fabulous creatures. While the word refers to inland native American tribes, it also denotes a tribe with dogs' legs and human bodies. The lower part of the body of the canine Adlet is like that of a...
, found in Inuit mythology
Inuit mythology
Inuit mythology has many similarities to the religions of other polar regions. Inuit traditional religious practices could be very briefly summarised as a form of shamanism based on animist principles....
. They are human-like creatures with dog legs.
Many superhero comics
Superhero comics
Superhero comics is a form of American comic books. The form rose to prominence in the 1930s and 1940s and has remained the dominant form of comic book in North America since the 1960s...
have characters who might be considered parahuman, such as Beast
Beast (comics)
Beast , Dr. Henry Philip "Hank" McCoy, is a comic book character, a Marvel Comics superhero and a member of the mutant team of superheroes known as the X-Men...
from the X-Men
X-Men
The X-Men are a superhero team in the . They were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1...
, Cheetah and Mini
Minotaur (New-Gen)
Minotaur or Mini is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in the NEW-GEN comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Chris Matonti, J.D. Matonti, and Julia Coppola, he first appeared in NEW-GEN #1 . He is the oldest founding member of the A.P.N.G. and their field leader...
from NEW-GEN
NEW-GEN (Comic)
NEW-GEN is a superhero comic book series created in 2008 by J.D. Matonti, Chris Matonti and Julia Coppola, of A.P.N.G. Enterprises. It is printed, distributed and advertised by Marvel Comics...
.
See also
- AnthropomorphismAnthropomorphismAnthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
- BiopoliticsBiopoliticsThe term "biopolitics" or "biopolitical" can refer to several different yet often compatible concepts.-Definitions:# In the work of Michel Foucault, the style of government that regulates populations through "biopower" .# In the works of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, anti-capitalist insurrection...
- Chimera (genetics)Chimera (genetics)A chimera or chimaera is a single organism that is composed of two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated from different zygotes involved in sexual reproduction. If the different cells have emerged from the same zygote, the organism is called a mosaic...
- Genetic pollutionGenetic pollutionGenetic pollution is a controversial term for uncontrolled gene flow into wild populations. This gene flow is undesirable according to some environmentalists and conservationists, including groups such as Greenpeace, TRAFFIC, and GeneWatch UK.-Usage:...
- SpeciesismSpeciesismSpeciesism is the assigning of different values or rights to beings on the basis of their species membership. The term was created by British psychologist Richard D...
- TherianthropyTherianthropyTherianthropy refers to the metamorphosis of humans into other animals. Therianthropes are said to change forms via shapeshifting. Therianthropes have long existed in mythology, appearing in ancient cave drawings such as the Sorcerer at Les Trois Frères....
- TranshumanTranshumanTranshuman or trans-human is a term that has been defined and redefined many times in history. In its contemporary usage, “transhuman” refers to an intermediary form between the human and the hypothetical posthuman.-History of hypotheses:...
- TranshumanismTranshumanismTranshumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...
- HumanzeeHumanzeeThe humanzee is a hypothetical chimpanzee/human hybrid. Chimpanzees and humans are closely related , leading to contested speculation that a hybrid is possible, though no specimen has ever been confirmed.-Etymology:In spite of the usual convention of portmanteau...