Patricia Piccinini’s sculpture, “The Young Family”, of a mother creature with her babies was displayed in 2002. “I take it for granted that technology will continue to advance” said Patricia Piccinini in her description of “The Young Family”. 15 years later, an actual pig embryo was injected with human stem cells and pictures were shown to the world. Before writing this paper, I didn’t realized how often artists use their work to question scientific issues. Piccinini hoped “The Young family” would encourage discussion of the full implications of the new developments in biotechnology. The sculpture appears to be a mother creature that is a cross of an animal and human with her three babies. The mother creature appears to be exhausted or in
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When the human stem cells are injected into the embryo, sometimes the organs the stem cells grow in the wrong places which can be painful when the embryo develops further. This is a risk that I believe is outweighed by the potential positive outcome of the organs and the cures. The human-animal chimera embryos should no longer be banned by the National Institute of Health to develop more than 28 days. In the case of Patricia Piccinini’s sculpture, “The Young Family”, the creature looks like it has a higher mental capacity due to the human features. The boundary between human and non-human is blurred since the creatures are part human. The rights of the creature must be decided and along with deciding if they get a choice. If human-animal chimeras were developed far enough to be used for organ transplants, would there be organ farms of animals that were bread just to donate their organs and die. That sounds harsh, but I think a farm of animals growing organs to save people is more beneficial to human kind than a cattle farm being grown for beef. Both groups of animals will die for the benefits of humans. Humans would have the responsibility to maintain the wellbeing of the human-animal chimeras just like any other group of farm animals. The wellbeing of animals is important, but I believe humans are the superior
When the human stem cells are injected into the embryo, sometimes the organs the stem cells grow in the wrong places which can be painful when the embryo develops further. This is a risk that I believe is outweighed by the potential positive outcome of the organs and the cures. The human-animal chimera embryos should no longer be banned by the National Institute of Health to develop more than 28 days. In the case of Patricia Piccinini’s sculpture, “The Young Family”, the creature looks like it has a higher mental capacity due to the human features. The boundary between human and non-human is blurred since the creatures are part human. The rights of the creature must be decided and along with deciding if they get a choice. If human-animal chimeras were developed far enough to be used for organ transplants, would there be organ farms of animals that were bread just to donate their organs and die. That sounds harsh, but I think a farm of animals growing organs to save people is more beneficial to human kind than a cattle farm being grown for beef. Both groups of animals will die for the benefits of humans. Humans would have the responsibility to maintain the wellbeing of the human-animal chimeras just like any other group of farm animals. The wellbeing of animals is important, but I believe humans are the superior