Humans as pets

Recently, the UK parliament voted in favor of a series of laws that will allow researchers to push the embryo and steam cell research to new boundaries. Basically, embryos, whether a mixture of human and animal, or straight human, could be used to create spare-parts for adult humans. More daring scenarios even predict the creation of transgenic living creatures. Of course, the range of speculation is unlimited as is the number of ethical, moral or legal issues that are raised by this type of research and its products. As one anonymous reader puts it, an individual who has 99,9 percent human genome will in have human rights or not? I have written before about how serious we should consider a charter of animal rights, if not for more reasons, for the simple fact that we might be “the animals” in some not very distant future. This connects to the broader issue of how we should treat all forms of life, defined in the broadest possible way.
Now, a simple answer to this endless stream of problems would be to out rightly reject any form of further research in this field. The UK MPs didn’t seem to agree with this, and rightly so, I believe. If we look back, any revolutionary idea and technological progress has had its doomsters. And again, rightly so. It could well have happened that a new invention meant for good deeds and for the benefit of the whole society could have had a negative impact to an extent that might lead to our complete extinction as a specie. In fact, the threat of global warming is still with us. Things are not simple. We know of apparently extraordinary useful inventions that have proven to have disastrous consequence years apart (for example, leaded gasoline or chlorofluorocarbons). On the other hand, the creation of atomic bomb, however malefic it might have appeared, in fact it is very likely that has had an enormous contribution to the creation of peace and stability, as Nobel laureate Thomas Schelling graciously argued.
My humble opinion is that we have to be open to research and its products, because nobody can foresee the potential of a new product for an extended horizon of time. Being critical and cautious, however, it is not ruled out. In fact, it is a desired attitude. And if it turns out that a new discovery will have cataclysmic effects and our entire specie or planet will disappear, well, so be it. The story of humans is interesting as long as there is someone to tell it. Otherwise, it is meaningless. But I believe in the human ingenuity and I believe that we are meant for a greater goal and I believe that there will always be someone to carry the torch and to learn from the past mistakes and errors. What is important is tolerance and respect for other forms of life, regardless of the way they have come into existence.
To conclude, I again quote an anonymous reader who was concerned with the kind of a pet he would become, should his genes be mingled with his dog’s genetic material? I agree this is a mind blowing question.