  As to the second point, even supposing that chimeric research did cause society to revisit its views about the comparative moral worth of humans and nonhumans, it still remains that this would provide little reason not to create chimeras. Indeed, it seems more plausible that this would provide, on balance, a reason to create them. Returning to the example of Stuart and Rifkin’s patent application for chimeras, although the United States Patent Office declined to offer guidance on distinguishing humans from nonhumans for the purpose of patent law, legal scholars have begun to address this issue (Stanković 2005; Zylstra 2012). Of course, it is logically possible that their scholarly efforts will result in changes to patent law that will be for the worse, but that bare possibility is clearly insufficient to justify an ethical condemnation of the scientists who created chimeras that led to Newman and Rifkin’s patent application which in turn led to scholarly efforts that might in turn lead to negative changes in patent law. As another, more urgent example, consider that our willingness to place the gustatory interests of humans ahead of the interests of non-human animals in avoiding pain, suffering, and death has been one of the greatest causes of unnecessary suffering in history (Scully 2002). In the United States alone, there are approximately 9.5 billion agricultural animals slaughtered each year, even though a vegetarian diet could easily satisfy most Americans’ nutritional needs (Humane Society of the United States 2009). (This count excludes marine animals, which could easily triple the total, and for whom death almost inevitably comes from either suffocation or being crushed.) Revisiting the moral views that are invoked to support this situation is probably essential to improving this social institution. Thus, to prevent scientific research on the grounds that it would force people to reexamine our views about moral status would be to prevent not only scientific progress but urgently needed moral progress as well.