Scientists create animals that are part-human. Or Flowers for Algernon.

Mice with human brains

In January, an informal ethics committee at Stanford University endorsed a proposal to create mice with brains nearly completely made of human brain cells. Stem cell scientist Irving Weissman said his experiment could provide unparalleled insight into how the human brain develops and how degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson’s progress.

Stanford law professor Hank Greely, who chaired the ethics committee, said the board was satisfied that the size and shape of the mouse brain would prevent the human cells from creating any traits of humanity. Just in case, Greely said, the committee recommended closely monitoring the mice’s behavior and immediately killing any that display human-like behavior.

My feeling on this is that if you kill a being that displays human-like behaviour, you're committing murder. The Turing test should be applied here.

No let me rephrase that. If you kill a sentient being, you are committing murder. A mouse with human brain cells that happens to show signs of sentience would be fascinating, and the bar will probably be far lower for people getting pissed off if you're killing animals with human brain cells.

But I'm not against the research.