  A real-life example that illustrates the possibility that chimera research might disrupt a useful social practice is the attempt in 1998 by Stuart Newman (a professor of cell biology and anatomy) and Jeremy Rifkin (an anti-biotechnology activist) to patent a broad range of chimeras resulting from the mixing of human and nonhuman embryonic cells (Heathcotte and Robert 2006; Rabin 2006). In 1987, then-United States Commissioner of Patent and Trademarks, Donald Quigg had announced that although human beings were not patentable, multicellular living organisms, including animals, were. Newman and Rifkin submitted their patent application in the hopes that either (a) the patent would be issued, thus giving them the legal right to prevent people from creating such chimeras, or (b) the patent would not be issued, forcing the United States Patent Office to clarify the dividing line between human beings and nonhuman animals. In the end, the patent application was rejected, both on technical grounds as well as the grounds that it encompassed human beings, which were not patentable (Weiss 2005). The Patent Office, however, declined to offer any precise details as to how to evaluate whether a chimera counted as a human being or not. But what if, a proponent of the Moral Confusion Argument might ask, the Patent Office had instead decided to revise their view and allow patents on human beings or to reject all patents on animals. Either decision would have entailed significant changes in the social practice of patenting with, arguably, significant costs.