The Natural Nature of Human Experimentation In 2011, over one hundred and fifty animal-human hybrid lines were

created in the United Kingdom alone. In China the technique of fusing animal-ova with human cells was pioneered over a decade ago. In America, pigs have been created which have pseudo-human blood running through their veins, theoretically capable of assisting with our blood-bank depletion problem. At each revelation, there has been a massive outcry, citing perversion, depravity and a fundamental abuse of human nature. However, in most of such arguments a key point is entirely overlooked. Genetic impurity is central to human nature. It is one of the most human things there is. Massive amounts of the human genetic code is inhuman. Even our most morally-praised institution, motherhood, comes from an invasive base. The development of the human placenta was believed to be kickstarted by a viral insertion similar to AIDS millions of years ago, which relied on parasitic, immune-suppressant qualities to survive. Fetal development may similarly be viruslinked, with involvement implicated in the differentiation of organs from the intestines, to the central nervous system and the kidneys. Recent studies have indicated that upwards of 8% of all human genetic material has a viral origin. How this impacts the legitimacy of some company's claims that the cells they have derived from modifying stem cells are no longer human is open to question. Certainly the argument has done little to convince critics of Pepsi and its hired research company Senomyx, who utilised virallyinfected cell lines from aborted fetal kidneys in the development of artificial sweeteners. Perhaps a better question to ask is whether the base composition of a cell's DNA is in any way sufficient to determine humanity. Experiments in 2011 showed that human brain cells implanted into a mouse developed along mouse lines to form a mouse brain; leading to the conclusion that if it moves and squeaks like a mouse it probably is one. The precise function of much of this viral material is unknown. Most is believed to be junk footprints of long-ago infections, using the human breeding system for inter-generational transmission. But some have positive or negative effects. Some viral material has been linked to cancer and autoimmune diseases. But equally, in Africa sex workers resistant to HIV were identified as being more likely to have specific viruses coded into their genome. In monkeys, viral dna has been linked to blocking development of leukemias. And in certain very simple bacteria, viruses have been able to perform the ultimate in moral breakdowns by resurrecting dead bacterium, albeit partly under their own control. Viral integration may have also been a major accelerant in evolution. Analysis shows that in less conserved mammalian genes endoviral integration is significantly higher. Each viral insertion offers an opportunity for genetic rearrangement, both through increasing the rate of mutation, and eliminating organisms lacking redundancies that protect vital functions. Other theories suggest epigenetic or gene-expression altering functions may have been derived wholesale as viral mechanisms to stop other viruses from invading infected cells are utilised to defend the organism as a whole. This is not to say that viral infections are a good thing. Many viral infections are harmfully parasitic, and even if a HIV-like retrovirus at some point triggered the development of the placenta, it would have still have wrought havoc on the hundreds of thousands of infected individuals before that point. But the role of symbionts within the human body is not to be underestimated. Even at the most basic level, the human cell is the product of predatory symbiosis. Inside cells, tiny organelles called mitochondria operate to produce the energy that power the entirety of the human body; using the oxygen taken in through the lungs to drive microscopic engines based on fat, sugar

and protein. In some cells, the mass of mitochondria can take over twenty-five percent of the cells net volume. What's more remarkable is that the mitochondria have different DNA and reproductive mechanisms to the rest of the body. Like viruses, mitochondria are a separate but integrated lifeform. But unlike viruses, they were not the parasites, but prey, consumed by the predatory predecessors of human cells, gradually stripped of their ability to function independently, and enslaved to provide energy. And in case there's any doubt, there are independent bacteria currently alive who carry out this process of enslaving as a natural part of their life cycle, capturing free-floating energy-producing cells, and then working them to death. Given the predatory nature of the development of the human species, it is hard to criticise the actions of modern scientists as out of step with evolutionary development. The modification of the human genome by humans is little different from that which nature has done for us all along. Whether the actions are wrong is one thing. Whether they are natural is an entirely different matter.