Apparently the human speech gene was given to some mice test-subjects, since their DNA is similar to humans.
"The mice with the human FOXP2 gene didn't start babbling like babies of course, but they showed changes in brain circuits that have previously been linked to human speech. The genetically altered mouse pups also showed differences in ultrasonic vocalizations they use when placed outside the comfort of their mothers' nests. But not enough is known about mouse communication to read too much into what those changes mean, Enard noted."
Since chimpanzees are so similar, I wonder why they wouldn't put it in them? Could it be that there is a possibility that chimps could actually start to have speech? (well, it wouldn't be human speech, but they could make similar sounds) Could it be that it is wrong? YES, it is wrong. In my opinion. Would it not be eerily freaky if the speech gene was put in a chimpanzee, and it soon started making people sounds? Like crying, or yelling? Then, it would be bad if the other chimps sensed a difference and excluded the mutated chimp? Or, if the chimp was not noticed as different and reproduced, then there would be more freakish chimps. Then what do you do? Do you have them neutered? Do you "dispose" of the mutated chimps, like many test labs do with their animals? That is cruel and wrong. I do believe it would be morally wrong to do this, both "disposing" and allowing an animal to have speech.
If you attach a machine to an animal that tells you what it is thinking, then that's alright, but not giving it speech. Animals should be left the way they are, how God made them. If they evolve on their own, as they have throughout the Earth's history and through natural selection, than that is right. I have come to the conclusion that the only reason they are not putting the speech gene in chimpanzees is that a) it is morally wrong and b) they would rather test on a little small animal that only knows the basics, than an animal similar to us, that have been taught sign-language, know how to communicate, and could have actual conversations if the experiment were to work.
They would rather not risk it.
CREEPY.
http://www.livescience.com/animals/090528-mice-speech-gene.html
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Those mutations where not put in chimpanzees simply because:
1) we don't know how to do it
2) there's a lot of things we can do with mice that we can't do with chimps (molecular biology tools, also take advantage of the very fast generation times of mice compared to apes, etc)
But all in all, if it was presently possible to do it on chimpanzees, it would have been done. This would probably not have caused the chimps to speak like humans (anyway their pharynx structure is different), but it could have had all kinds of consequences which would be very interesting to study.
As for the morality of doing it, it boils down to what are the rights of higher primates. Some people argue that higher primates are sufficiently close to man to benefit from specific rights (just like we don't deprive humans of their human rights just because they are severely mentally retarded). In that case, doing those kind of experiments would be impossible.
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