Obviously this is a rather broad topic so I plan to take it in steps.
Topic 1: Human monkey hybrids of some sort.
Meet Oliver the Chimp.
Issues with Oliver were that he consistently walked upright, had facial and hair characteristics more similar to humans than chimps. Also he was sexually attracted to humans, not chimps, unlike the other chimps where he lived. One comment on the clip suggests that this genuinely could be a human/chimp mix, pointing out the valid fact that such cross-insemination is possible for a number of other related species (personally my favorite have always been ligers and tigons). He has been called a humanzee, for example.
Another further point is that in the area where Oliver was raised, there is substantial interaction between humans and chimps. Now, just extrapolating from what I've heard about young men isolated on farms, it seems not at all unlikely that it really could be the result of a human/chimp sexual interaction. Of course, the issue is whether this is really possible. More unrelated species simply cannot reproduce.
Evidently with chimps 99% of basic chemistry is shared with humans and so DNA strands can theoretically match together to create a functioning being.
Then, as a random twist, a Manhattan lawyer decided to buy a chimp (seriously? you can just own a chimp? I'll assume he had the appropriate regulatory approval). Also related, a fascinating possibility of having chimps acting as surrogate mothers for human babies. Now, that could be a boon for any number of people, although the potential consequences are surely unknown.
Oddly, the commentators on this rather well-produced video series indicate that somehow humans are rather interested in a hybrid human-chimp. Personally, I certainly couldn't care less, although it doesn't strike me as a particularly good path to puruse. I suppose my major issue is that typically, chimps don't have the same self-control and social acclimation. Evidently, the press made it out as though he was quite human when in reality, he was quite chimp-like. But rather fascinatingly, when they actually did a chromosome analysis (and this was a while ago, so we aren't talking about an advanced analysis) it turned out that Oliver had one more chromosome than a human and one less than a chimp. Bizarre. NB that a later analysis found that this was inaccurate and that in fact he had the same number of chromosomes as a standard chimp. I find this discrepency confusing and question what exactly was going on, particularly as the second analysis did find a number of genetic variations that seperated Oliver from normal chimps.
Hysterically (and not shocking for the Japanese, and I love them but they can be weird) a Japanese actress planned to broadcast on television her mating with Oliver, for scientific purposes. (nb that typically with cross-breed children, they are incapable of reproduction - a normal outcome given that nature didn't intend for these hybrids to exist and continue on through generations...although...it kind of begs the question of why they would exist at all if the intent wasn't for them to exist. I guess I would like to know what people's god says about that)
I don't follow how this could have "profound implications for human evolution" - we pretty much get that the chimps are pretty close to humans, right? The conclusion that, genetically speaking, he is not a human-chimp hybrid, doesn't really matter as the whole point is that you go from chimps to humans. So you could easily have a chimp show up that is on a similar path of evolution, either current or stalled in a previous development.
Of course, when you cross into the politics of the situation, there is potentially a very slippery slope. If a chimp/human is a human, then are we going to have to treat "animals" as humans and where do we try to draw that line? That is a consistently troubling pothole for those seeking humane treatment for animals as well as average people dealing with more basic situations - in many ways, this doesn't differ from the abortion debate in that the essential question is, at what point does this being become a human and magically become protected under all the laws of humans, but not other molecular constructions.
On Oliver, it sounds like he had a rather difficult and confusing life, enjoying people, being shunned by his fellow chimps, and generally not fitting in, as well as being exploited by media outlets. And I also disagree with the notion that we should create these things for scientific research. It seems that we've managed to do fine without them and I'm becoming less and less comfortable with the notion of using living things to involuntarily test products that could kill or seriously impair them. Yes, I don't want toxic lipstick. But can't you more or less figure that out based on current scientific knowledge? Also, given that reactions of rats and mice to pharmaceuticals is very far off a typical human reaction, what is even the point of these tests other than to harm the animals and provide the federal regulatory agencies (whose bills are paid for by the same companies who want their products on the market - I know that sounds outrageous, but it's true and thus truly is outrageous) with a random benchmark for saying that tests should proceed forward and drugs go to market? The FDA has to be radically overhauled, more on that later.
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