  A deeper concern about legitimacy also applies to chimera research. Legal moralism, the view that the fact that an act is morally wrong provides a legitimate reason for the state to ban it, is incompatible with very plausible views about the requirement that legitimate public policy be based on considerations that are neutral on certain kinds of issues. For example, even on the assumption that the Unnaturalness argument, interpreted as a religious objection against interfering with God’s plans, is sound, it still would not provide legitimate grounds for a public policy restriction on chimeras. Similarly, proponents of chimera research cannot legitimately argue that it should be funded, or even just that it should be legally permitted, because it represents humanity’s partial fulfillment of a divine imperative to acquire knowledge and improve the human condition. Chimera research raises issues about unnaturalness, God’s plan, human dignity, and the moral status of animals and humans at all stages of development. To evaluate these issues in the context of chimera research, some scholars are beginning to develop faith-based frameworks as well as Aristotelian-Thomistic frameworks (DiSilvestro 2004; Degeling, Irvine, and Kerridge 2013; Eberl and Ballard 2009). In such discussions, many considerations that are viewed as carrying moral weight should not be viewed as providing legitimate reasons for public policy (Basl 2010; Streiffer 2010). Groups advocating, making, or implementing public policy regarding chimera research should therefore be sensitive to the distinction between sound ethics and legitimate public policy.