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The chimera (pronounced keye-MIR-uh) was "a fire-breathing she-monster in Greek mythology having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail."<ref>http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chimera</ref>
The chimera (pronounced keye-MIR-uh) was "a fire-breathing she-monster in Greek mythology having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail."<ref>http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chimera</ref>
In modern usage, a chimera is a scientifically created combination of two different animal cells in a living organism, such as an embryo. However, chimeras do occur in nature by odd chance. However, these variations tend to be very subtle. Recently, scientist have focused on creating a partially human chimera. Such combination is widely opposed on religious and ethical grounds.
The term has multiple uses in modern biology. One prominent definition is an animal that has multiple different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated from different zygotes. Some humans are naturally chimeric, sharing cells from a twin (often one that was never born) or a parent.<ref>http://www.theage.com.au/cgi-bin/common/popupPrintArticle.pl?path=/articles/2003/11/27/1069825920727.html </ref>.
In popular usage, a chimera is a chimera in the above sense but deliberately created with a combination of human and animal cells. Such combination is often opposed on religious and ethical grounds. Some Catholic bishops have argued that such embryos should not be created but should be brought to term if created in contrast to proposed legislation in Great Britain which would allow both the creation of chimeras and outlaw the implantation of a chimera once created.<ref>http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/06/uk-catholic-bis.html </ref><ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/26/nchimera126.xml </ref>
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