On Thu, 2 Oct 2003 18:42:07 +0000 (UTC), Tim Tyler 
wrote:

>William L Hunt  wrote or quoted:
>> "Representative Trantis"  wrote:
>
>>>What would it take to mate humans and chimps to produce a
healthy offspring?
>>>
>>>They are 99% related. Given that, would it be possible for them
to mate, and
>>>what would be the likely result?
>>>
>>>(What effect would that one percent have?)
>>>
>>  This was once before a thread in SBE and the consensus was it would
>> not be possible.
>
>Genetic engineering will eventually result in it becoming possible to
>combine elements of practically any two species and produca e viable
>result, with characters from both species.
>
>As such it is likely to blur - or eliminate - "species" as a
natural kind.
>
>Without such interventions, though, the consensus is that humans
>and chimps are indeed separate species - and unions can be expected 
>to produce no offspring.
>
>There have historically been some candidate hybryds (e.g. see:
>http://legioneuropa.org/Racediv/species2.htm )...but apparently,
>none have panned out.

Given that hybridization and lateral gene transfer have been occuring
for a few billion years, now,  and given that there are probably
something on the order of ten million species around, it is unlikely
that genetic engineering on one or two is ever likely to blur
anything.  It will make a difference in a very tiny handful of cases
(a few agricultural hybrids may dominate), but the notion of "species"
will remain.
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