Comments on: Designing Baby Neanderthals

By: Tom McFarland

Tom McFarland — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:52:11 +0000

If indeed some group knows “enough technically to do it”,
that is, to create a person with something close to a Neanderthal genome, as Gregory E. Kaebnick states, then some group eventually WILL do it, which will nullify most of the ethical wranglings above. The ethical issue will then be, how do we relate to the new creation.

In the worst possible scenario, which does not seem all that bad, the new creation will have children and grandchildren, and if the woman Zana is any precedent, these descendents will integrate into society. If the resurrected genes are poorly adaptive in today’s world, they will remain rare.

Since fame and fortune seem to have been a curse even for modern humans, the merciful scenario for a neanderthal re-creation would be to keep the activity a closely held secret. Imagine the fate a colony of hobbits on Flores if the paparazzi found out!

By: historiana

historiana — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:23:29 +0000

neanderthal is in all people with european ancestry, they did not get killed off, or die off. Impossible as they were very human like. Some of their features still come out in some people.

By: Edward Metcalfe

Edward Metcalfe — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:42:31 +0000

Maybe the Neanderthals were more capable of independent thought than humans, meaning they wouldn’t form armies under the nearest flag, etc.

This behavioural difference could have been their downfall. I think we need to know this. Perhaps the realisation that “the bad guys won” is what is needed.

By: maddie

maddie — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:24:40 +0000

the most disturbing thought to me about recreating a neanderthal would be that he or she would be viewed as nothing more than a scientific project not a being in their own right, as he or she could not be given a neanderthal upbringing i would wonder as to the validity of any research, the whole genotype versus phenotype argument etc, even if the child was given human parents s/he would never have any biological family, i would worry about mental health problems similar to those seen in some homo sapiens that were adopted, which also would surely invalidate the results, and that is without any mental health problems caused by being constantly studied, which appears to me to be a somewhat abusive childhood, how many would have to die before a successful child was engineered, and to think that using a chimpanzee mother would be a legal loophole seems absurd to me as the end result would be a neanderthal not a chimpanzee, but then i am against vivisection which is a whole other argument,

By: terry o'connell

terry o'connell — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:42:09 +0000

Confusing knowledge with curiosity is often a fatal experience! Curiosity killed the cat but knowledge can and has saved us. Has, what many think happened, a confluence of Neanderthal and Cro Magnon genes, producing us: skewed our nature towards aggression and destruction? Were Neanderthals more in tune with nature and less destructive? The knowledge of the answers to those questions could serve us beyond all measure of specious argument!

By: mary

mary — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:55:46 +0000

yes they should bring them back it could help

By: shaynna

shaynna — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:54:35 +0000

I think we should try in bring and bring them back.This earth was theres befor ares so do it.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:19:25 +0000

I disagree

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 03:18:20 +0000

The human heart is capable of much love, especially for our offspring. Should a Neanderthal baby be created, it must have human parents that plan to raise and care for the child.

Ask yourselves these questions… Would it be ethical for a woman of one ethnicticity to have an in-vitro baby from a different ethnicticity? Wouldn’t the baby still be cared for the same as would a baby of the same ethnicticity? I hope most of us would answer yes, this is ethical, and the child would be cared for the same.

Human parents are going to still love their children even if the’re very different than themselves, just look at the parents of children with Cerebral palsy.

By: diane

diane — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 04:23:48 +0000

This article is very disturbing. First of all, I hope that this genetic manipulation will never occur. But if it is desidedly done, putting a human embryo into a chimp is the most horrifiying thing I have ever heard. After all the Neanderthal is HUMAN, NOT CHIMP. It would be better to have a human volunteer to deliver the baby neanderthal and at least he or she would have human characteristics like him or her self. What kind of life would the neanderthal human have here in this day and age. The neanderthal human would not look that much like anyone else. Would he or she have a normal childhood? I think not. A neanderthal is a human and will have a human spirit. Remember that please before you or anyone decides to bring back ancient man. Thanks