By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback's proposed Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act of 2009 is creating a fair amount of hilarity on the Internet. Mermaids outlawed. Spiderman banned. You get the picture.

But the intermingling of human and animal cells has long been a part of medical research. For several years scientists have been transplanting human stem cells into mice and guinea pigs, essentially creating human systems within the animals to experiment with diseases and cures.

Brownback, on his blog, described the bill as

...modest in scope and only affects efforts to blur the genetic lines between animals and humans. It does not preclude the use of animals or humans in legitimate research or health care where genetic material is not passed on to future generations, such as the use of a porcine heart valve in a human patient or the use of a lab rat with human diseases to develop treatments.

But this proposed legislation may be more farreaching than meets the eye. Senators must examine the provisions carefully to make sure they don't outlaw promising research that could lead to cures.

More on human-animal blending in the science labs can be found here.

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