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Georgia Republican: Outlaw man-made centaurs, but leave the real ones alone

By David Ferguson

A Georgia Republican legislator has taken a bold stance against man-made centaurs, werewolves and other “human-animal hybrids” with a bill outlawing the mixing of human and animal genetic material.

According to Atlanta’s WMAZ Channel 13, state Rep. Tom Kirby (R) proposed a law to make it illegal in the state of Georgia “to create a human animal hybrid.”

“Everybody always asks,” Kirby said to Channel 13, “Is it even possible to mix non-human with human embryos? Yes it is.”

He pointed to researchers who have grafted proteins isolated from the embryos of jellyfish on to other animals’ DNA, like the glow-in-the-dark kittens created by Mayo Clinic researchers as part of their research in the fight against AIDS.

Kirby does not believe that all use of animal DNA in research should be outlawed, only that which seeks to create living beings who combine human and animal traits. Such creatures, he said, belong solely in mythology and not in the real world.

“Y’know the mermaids in the ocean, that’s been around for a long time,” Kirby explained. “I don’t think we should create them. But if they exist, that’s fine.”

“Y’know I really don’t like centaurs,” he went on. “They really have bad attitudes most of the time and we’ve got enough people with bad attitudes as it is.”

Bird-men, he said, are understandable enough. “I think man has been trying to fly forever,” and it would be fine “if it’s a natural genetic mutation,” but to create flying humans in a lab, well, that’s a step too far.

Similarly, “(w)e don’t want to laboratorily [sic] create the werewolf,” the lawmaker said, but if they are “naturally occurring in the environment,” then they should be left alone.

Also in the world of Stupid...

An Idaho lawmaker received a brief lesson on female anatomy after asking if a woman can swallow a small camera for doctors to conduct a remote gynecological exam.

The question Monday from Republican Rep. Vito Barbieri came as the House State Affairs Committee heard nearly three hours of testimony on a bill that would ban doctors from prescribing abortion-inducing medication through telemedicine.

Dr. Julie Madsen was testifying in opposition to the bill when Barbieri asked the question. Madsen replied that would be impossible because swallowed pills do not end up in the vagina.

The committee approved the bill 13-4 on a party-line vote. Barbieri, who sits on the board of a crisis pregnancy center in northern Idaho, voted in favor of the legislation.