Ahuman–animal hybrid (oranimal–human hybrid) is a hypothetical organism that incorporates elements from bothhumans andnon-humananimals. In a technical sense, a human–animalhybrid would be defined as anorganism in which eachcell contains both human and non-humangenetic material. This contrasts with a non-humanchimera in which some cells are human and the other are derived from a non-humanorganism (ahuman chimera, by contrast, consists entirely of human cells from different zygotes.)[1]
Examples of human–animal hybrids mainly includehumanized mice that have beengenetically modified byxenotransplantation of humangenes.[2] Humanized mice are commonly used as small animalmodels inbiological andmedical research for developinghuman therapeutics.
Human–animal hybrids are the subject oflegal,moral andtechnologicaldebate, particularly in light of recent advances ingenetic engineering.[3][4][5]
Human–animal hybrids have appeared inmythology andstorytelling across multiplecultures andcontinents, and in recent decades incomic books,films,video games and other media.[6][3][7][4][8]
Defined by the magazineH+ as "genetic alterations that are blendings [sic] of animal and human forms", such hybrids may be referred by other names occasionally such as "para-humans".[6][3] They may additionally be called "humanized animals".[5] Technically speaking, they are also related to "cybrids" (cytoplasmic hybrids), with "cybrid" cells featuring foreign humannuclei inside of them being a topic of interest. Possibly, a real-world human-animal hybrid may be an entity formed from either ahuman egg fertilized by a nonhumansperm or a nonhuman egg fertilized by a human sperm.[3]
Artificially created human-animal hybrids include humanized mice that have been xenotransplanted with human gene products, so as to be utilized for gaining relevant insights in thein vivo context for understanding of human-specificphysiology andpathology.[2] Humanized mice are commonly used as small animal models in biological and medical research for human therapeutics includinginfectious diseases andcancer. For example, genetically modified mice may be born withhuman leukocyte antigen genes in order to provide a more realistic environment when introducing humanwhite blood cells into them in order to studyimmune system responses.[9]
Advances ingenetic engineering have generally caused a large number of debates and discussions in the fields related tobioethics, including research relating to the creation of human-animal hybrids. Although the two topics are not strictly related, the debates involving the creation of human-animal hybrids have paralleled that of the debates around the stem-cell research controversy.[3]
The question of what line exists between a "human" being and a "non-human" being has been a difficult one for many researchers to answer. While animals having one percent or less of their cells originally coming from humans may clearly appear to be non-human, no consensus exists on how to categorise beings in a genetic middle ground that have an approximately even mix. "I don't think anyone knows in terms of crude percentages how to differentiate between humans and nonhumans,"U.S. patent office official John Doll has stated.[5] Critics of increased government restrictions include scientists such as Douglas Kniss, head of the Laboratory of Perinatal Research atOhio State University, who has remarked that formal laws are not the best option since the "notion of animal-human hybrids is very complex." He has also argued that their creation is inherent "not the kind of thing we support" in his kind of research since scientists should "want to respect human life".[3]
In contrast, socio-economic theoristJeremy Rifkin has expressed opposition to research that creates beings crossing species boundaries, arguing that it interferes with the fundamental 'right to exist' possessed by each animal species. "One doesn't have to be religious or into animal rights to think this doesn't make sense," he has argued when expressing support for anti-chimera and anti-hybrid legislation. As well, William Cheshire, associate professor of neurology at theMayo Clinic's Florida branch, has called the issue "unexplored biologic territory" and advocated for a "moral threshold of human neural development" to restrict the destroying a human embryo to obtain cell material and/or the creation of an organism that's partly human and partly animal." He has said, "We must be cautious not to violate the integrity of humanity or of animal life over which we have a stewardship responsibility".[4]
While laws against the creation of hybrid beings have been proposed in U.S. states and in theU.S. Congress, several scientists have argued that legal barriers might go too far and prohibit medically beneficial studies into human modification.[3][4][5]
In terms ofscientific ethics, restrictions on the creation of human–animal hybrids have proved a controversial matter in multiple countries. While the state ofArizona banned the practice altogether in 2010, a proposal on the subject that sparked some interest in theUnited States Senate from 2011 to 2012 ended up going nowhere. Although the two concepts are not strictly related, discussions of experimentation into blended human and animal creatures has paralleled the discussions aroundembryonic stem-cell research (the 'stem cell controversy').[3] The creation ofgenetically modified organisms for a multitude of purposes has taken place in the modern world for decades, examples being specifically designed foodstuffs made to have features such as higher crop yields through better disease resistance.[10]
PresidentGeorge W. Bush brought up the topic in his2006 State of the Union Address, in which he called for the prohibition of "human cloning in all its forms", "creating or implanting embryos for experiments", "creatinghuman-animal hybrids", and also "buying, selling, or patenting human embryos". He argued, "A hopeful society has institutions of science and medicine that do not cut ethical corners and that recognize the matchless value of every life." He also stated that humanity "should never be discarded, devalued or put up for sale."[11]
A 2005 appropriations bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Bush contained specific wording forbidding any patents on humans or human embryos.[5] In terms of outright bans on hybrid research in the first place, a measure came up in the110th Congress entitled theHuman-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act of 2008. CongressmanChris Smith (R,NJ-4) introduced it on April 24, 2008. The text of the proposed act stated that "human dignity and the integrity of the human species are compromised" if such hybrids exist and set up the punishment of imprisonment for up to ten years as well as a fine of over one million dollars. Though attracting support from many co-sponsors such as thenRepresentativesMary Fallin,Duncan Hunter,Joseph R. Pitts, andRick Renzi among others, the Act failed to get through Congress.[12]
A related proposal had come up in theU.S. Senate the prior year, theHuman-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act of 2007, and it also had failed. That effort was proposed by then-SenatorSam Brownback (R,KS) on November 15, 2007. Featuring the same language as the later measure in the House, its bipartisan group of cosponsors included then SenatorsTom Coburn,Jim DeMint, andMary Landrieu.[13]
A localized measure designed to ban the creation of hybrid entities came up in the state ofArizona in 2010. The proposal was signed into law by thenGovernorJan Brewer. Its sponsor stated that it was needed to clarify important "ethical boundaries" in research.[3]
For thousands of years, thesehybrids have been one of the most common themes instorytelling about animals throughout the world. The lack of a strong divide between humanity and animal nature in multiple traditional and ancient cultures has provided the underlying historical context for the popularity of tales where humans and animals have mingling relationships, such as in which one turns into the other or in which some mixed being goes through a journey.[14]Interspecies friendships within the animal kingdom, as well as between humans and their pets, additionally provides an underlying root for the popularity of such beings.[6]
In various mythologies throughout history, many particularly famous hybrids have existed, including as a part of Egyptian and Indian spirituality.[14] The entities have also been characters in fictional media such as inH. G. Wells' workThe Island of Doctor Moreau, adapted into the popular1932 filmIsland of Lost Souls.[7] In legendary terms, the hybrids have played varying roles from that of trickster and/or villain to serving as divine heroes in very different contexts, depending on the given culture.[14]
Beings displaying a mixture of human and animal traits while also having a similarly blended appearance have played a vast and varied role in multiple traditions around the world.[14] Artist and scholar Pietro Gaietto has written that "representations of human-animal hybrids always have their origins in religion". In "successive traditions they may change in meaning but they still remain within spiritual culture", Gaietto has argued, when looking back in anevolution-minded point of view. The beings show up in bothGreek andRoman mythology, with various elements ofancient Egyptian society ebbing and flowing into those cultures in particular. Prominent examples inancient Egyptian religion, featuring some of the earliest such hybrid beings, include thecanine-likegod of death known asAnubis and the lion-likeSphinx.[15][unreliable source?] Other instances of these types of characters include figures within bothChinese andJapanese mythology.[14][16] The observation ofinterspecies friendships within the animal kingdom, as well as the bonds existing between humans and their pets, have been a source of the appeal in such stories.[6]
A prominent hybrid figure that's internationally known is themythological Greek figure of Pan. A deity that rules over and symbolizes the untamed wild, he helps express the inherent beauty of the natural world as the Greeks saw things. He specifically received reverence by ancienthunters, fishermen, shepherds, and other groups with a close connection to nature. Pan is a Satyr who possesses the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat while otherwise being essentially human in appearance; stories of his encounters with different gods, humans, and others have beena part of popular culture in several different cultures for many years.[17] The human-animal hybrid has appeared in acclaimed works of art by figures such asFrancis Bacon,[8] also being mentioned inpoetic pieces such as inJohn Fletcher's writings.[17] Specifically, the human-animal hybrid has appeared in acclaimed works of art by figures such asFrancis Bacon.[8] Additional famous mythological hybrids include the Egyptiangod of death, namedAnubis, and the fox-like Japanese beings that are calledKitsune.[14]
InChinese mythology, the figure ofZhu Bajie (Chinese:豬八戒;pinyin:Zhūbājiè) undergoes a personal journey in which he gives up wickedness for virtue. After causing a disturbance in heaven from his licentious actions, he is exiled to Earth. By mistake, he enters the womb of a sow and ends up being born as a half-man/half-pig entity. With the head and ears of a pig coupled with a human body, his already animal-like sense of selfishness from his past life remains.Killing and eating his mother as well asdevouring his brothers, he makes his way to a mountain hideout, spending his days preying on unwary travelers unlucky enough to cross his path. However, the exhortations of the kindgoddessKuan Yin, journeying in China, persuade him to seek a nobler path, and his life's journey and the side of goodness proceeds on such that even he is ordained a priest by the goddess herself.[18] Remarking on the character's role in the religious novelJourney to the West, where the being first appears, professorVictor H. Mair has commented that "[p]ig-human hybrids represent descent and the grotesque, a capitulation to the basest appetites" rather than "self-improvement".[16]
Several hybrid entities have long played a major role in Japanese media and in traditional beliefs within the country. For example, a warrior god known as Amida received worship as a part ofJapanese mythology for many years; he possessed a generally humanoid appearance while having a canine-like head. However, the god's devotional popularity fell in about the middle of the 19th century.[15][unreliable source?] ATanuki resembles araccoon dog, but itsshape-shifting talents allow it to turn into humans for the purposes of trickery, such as impersonatingBuddhistmonks. The fox-like creatures known asKitsune also possess similar powers, and stories abound of them tricking human men into marriage by turning into seductive women.[14]
Other examples include characters in ancientAnatolia andMesopotamia. The latter region has had the tradition of a malevolent human-animal hybrid deity inPazuzu, thedemon featuring a humanoid shape yet having grotesque features such as sharptalons.[15][unreliable source?] The character picked up revived attention whenan interpretation of it appeared inWilliam Peter Blatty's1971 novelThe Exorcist and theAcademy Award winning1973 film adaption of the same name, with the demon possessing the body of an innocent young girl. The movie, regarded asone of the greatest horror films of all time, has a prologue in which co-protagonistFather Merrin (Max von Sydow) visits anarchaeological dig inIraq and ominously discovers an old statue of the monstrous being.[19][20]
"Theriocephaly" (fromGreek θηρίονtherion 'beast' and κεφαλήkefalí 'head') is theanthropomorphic condition or quality of having the head of an animal with a body either mostly or entirely looking human – the term being commonly used to refer the depiction ofdeities or otherwise specially able individuals. An entity with such qualities is said to be "theriomorphous".[21] Many of thegods and goddesses worshipped by theancient Egyptians, for example, were commonly depicted as being theriocephalic. This phenomenon partly represented an intermediate step in a longer process of anthropomorphization of former animal deities (e.g. the goddessHathor in her earliest form was depicted as a cow and in her latest manifestation as a woman with cows ears and sometimes a hairstyle resembling cows horns). But the form of depiction sometimes depended also on the aspects of a deity an artist wanted to accentuate (e.g.Ba, the aspect of personality of a human soul, was depicted as a bird with a humans head). This can also be seen in the different hieroglyphs that could be used to write the name of a single deity.
Other notable examples include:
Examples from other geographic areas include:
Many prominent pieces of children's literature over the past two centuries have featured humanized animal characters, often asprotagonists in the stores. In the opinion of popular educatorLucy Sprague Mitchell, the appeal of such mythical and fantastic beings comes from how children desire "direct" language "told in terms of images— visual, auditory, tactile, muscle images". Another author has remarked that an "animal costume" provides "a way to emphasize or even exaggerate a particular characteristic".
Theanthropomorphic characters in the seminal works by English writerBeatrix Potter in particular live an ambiguous situation, having human dress yet displaying many instinctive animal traits. Writing on the popularity ofPeter Rabbit, a later author commented that in "balancing humanized domesticity against wild rabbit foraging, Potter subverted parental authority and its built in hypocrisy" in Potter's child-centered books. Writer Lisa Fraustino has cited on the subjectR.M. Lockley's tongue-in-cheek observation: "Rabbits are so human. Or is it the other way around— humans are so rabbit?"[22]
WriterH. G. Wells created his famous workThe Island of Doctor Moreau, featuring a mixture ofhorror andscience fiction elements, to promote the anti-vivisection cause as a part of his long-time advocacy foranimal rights. Wells' story describes a man stuck on an island ruled over by the titular Dr. Moreau, a morally depraved scientist who has created several human-animal hybrids referred to as 'Beast Folk' through vivisection and even by combining parts of other animals for some of the 'Beast Folk'. The story has been adapted into film several times, with varying success. The most acclaimed version is the 1932black-and-white treatment calledIsland of Lost Souls.[7] Wells himself wrote that "this story was the response of an imaginative mind to the reminder that humanity is but animal rough-hewn to a reasonable shape and in perpetual internal conflict between instinct and injunction," with the scandals surroundingOscar Wilde being the impetus for the English writer's treatment of themes such as ethics and psychology. Challenging theVictorian era viewpoints of its time, the1896 work presents a complex situation in which enhancing animals into hybrids involves both terrifying violence and pain as well as appears essentially futile, given the power of raw instinct. A pessimistic view towards the ability of human civilization to live bylaw-abiding,moral standards for long thus follows.[23]
InFranz Kafka'sThe Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa "transforms into an Ungeziefer (loosely, ‘vermin’), a symbolic human-animal hybrid––a supercharged synanthrope—co-inhabiting human flesh, mind, and room."[24]
On a more everyday life tone, featuring human-animal hybrids of mythological beings having common human experiences,A Centaur's Life, known in Japan asCentaur's Worries (Japanese:セントールの悩み,Hepburn:Sentōru no Nayami), is a Japaneseslice of lifecomedymanga series by Kei Murayama.[25][26] The series has been serialized inTokuma Shoten'sMonthly Comic Ryū magazine since February 2011, and is published in English bySeven Seas Entertainment.[27][28] Ananime television series adaptation byHaoliners Animation League aired in Japan from July to September 2017.[29][30]
The 1986horror filmThe Fly features adeformed and monstrous human-fly hybrid, played by actorJeff Goldblum.[6] His character, scientist Seth Brundle, undergoes ateleportation experiment that goes awry and fuses him at a fundamental genetic level with acommon fly caught besides him. Brundle experiences drastic mutations as a result that horrify him. Movie critic Gerardo Valero has written that the famous horror work, "released at the dawn of theAIDS epidemic", "was seen by many as a metaphor for the disease" while also playing on bodily fears aboutdismemberment and coming apart that human beings inherently share.[31]
TheH. P. Lovecraft–inspired movieDagon, released in 2001, additionally features grotesque hybrid beings.
Heroic character examples of human-animal anthropomorphic characters include the two protagonists of the2002 movieThe Cat Returns (Japanese title: 猫の恩返し), with theanimated film featuring a young girl (named "Haru") being transformed against her will into afeline-human hybrid and fighting a villainousking of the cats with the help of a dashing male cat companion (known as the "Baron") at her side.
Thescience fiction filmSplice, released 2009, shows scientists mixing together human and animalDNA in the hopes of advancing medical research at the pharmaceutical company that they work at. Calamitous results occur when the hybrid named Dren (portrayed byDelphine Chanéac) is born.[3]
In terms ofcomic books, examples of fictional human-animal hybrids include the characters inCharles Burns'Black Hole series. In those comics, a set of teenagers in a 1970s era town become afflicted by a bizarre disease; thesexually transmitted affliction mutates them into monstrous forms.[6]
Marvel Comics has a race of human-animal hybrids called theNew Men who were created by theHigh Evolutionary by evolving the animals into humanoid forms.
Multiple video games have featured human-animal hybrids as enemies for the protagonist(s) to defeat, including powerfulboss characters. For instance, the 2014survival horror releaseThe Evil Within includes grotesque hybrid beings, looking like theundead, attacking main character Detective Sebastian Castellanos. With partners Joseph Oda and Julie Kidman, the protagonist attempts investigate a multiple homicide at amental hospital yet discovers a mysterious figure who turns the world around them into a livingnightmare, Castellanos having to find the truth about the criminalpsychopath.[32]
Thefurry fandom consists of individuals interested in a variety ofartistic materials and media, often featuring art depicting human-animal hybrids in everyday life. The majority of people involved in the fandom have a uniquefursona depicting a version or versions of themselves as a hybrid creature.[33] This practice functions as an outlet based on "personal ideas of self-expression" (self-realization)[34] or belonging in the community.[35]
Hybrid embryos are embryos created by mixing human sperm and animal ova, or animal sperm and human ova. Human chimera embryos are human embryos that have had animal cells added to them during early development. … Lastly, transgenic human embryos are human embryos that have had animal genes inserted into them early in development.
just you watch! pan.
