[Bow-ties are Cool.]
Apeman Experiments Disclosed
New Breed Of Subhuman Slave Envisioned In Tests
An Italian anthropologist said this week that biogenetic scientists, using refined techniques of artificial fertilization, are capable of creating a new breed of slave, an anthropoid with a chimpanzee mother and a human father.
Brunetto Chiarelli, dean of anthropolgy at Florence University, said the experiments on the new subhuman species had been interrupted at the embryo stage because of ``ethical problems.``
The professor said the experiments had been kept a secret. He did not know the name of the laboratories but thought that in the United States and other countries the cross-breeding of a female chimpanzee, fertilized with human male sperm, had resulted in the formation of an anthropoid embryo.
``Scientific information is numerous but reserved. Maybe at the end of the year we will have an idea of what has been achieved,`` he said.
In an interview Chiarelli suggested the new species could be used ``for labor chores that are repetitive and disagreeable . . . or as a reservoir for transplant organs.``
The professor also said that at Florence University, genetic researchers had successfully crossed two species of ape, gibbon and siamang.
``These two species are genetically more diverse than man and ape,``
Chiarelli added.
The idea of an army of apemen ``slaves`` cleaning streets, placing nuts and bolts on assembly line products or waiting in cages to have their vital organs cut out for transplants came as a shock to the clergy and scientists.
Though Italian scientists agreed that it was technically possible, they doubted that such experiments had been carried to their natural conclusion:
the birth of an apeman baby.
Church leaders recalled that the Vatican only a few weeks ago had condemned genetic experimentation.
``The idea is bestial and repugnant,`` commented Rita Levi Montalcini, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Physics.
``Any such initiative must be blocked at once,`` said professor Arturo Falaschi, director of the Genetic Institute at Pavia University.
But other Italian scientists agreed that with modern techniques, the idea is feasible. They also pointed out that the first apeman experiments were carried out in Paris in the mid-1930s with what one professor called ``the most crude methods.``
``As far as I know nothing has been published on the subject, although one cannot exclude that some experiments have not been made public,`` said Alberto Piazza, director of the Institute of Genetics at Turin University.
He added: ``I ask myself, however, what would be the scope of such experiments? To create an army of slaves?``
As the hunt began for the laboratories where the experiments are conducted, Chiarelli denied Tuesday that the hybrid had been created at his institution in Florence.
Calling for a code on genetic ``engineering,`` he said scientists at this point had no interest in going beyond the embryo stage of an apeman because ``there are no precise political guidelines.``
What worried many genetic researchers was that any adverse publicity about their science could slow experiments on the cure of hereditary illnesses and genetic defects with new selective fertilization methods.
``Our scope is to cure illnesses and help with the production of new pharmaceutical products. We don`t want to create monsters,`` Piazza said.
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