Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
They would need to clone more than one. Both males and females. And they must be adopted out to families willing to raise them as their own children, and love them as such also. Differences could be documented during their lives and over time the picture would become clear on integration and other matters. First thing to remember is they are sentient and can not be treated otherwise. As sentient beings they fall under the normal rule of law with possible exceptions until a generation or 2 have lived and died natural life cycles. Clearly a worthwhile endeavour. I say do it ASAP.
I don't think anyone has brought this up before. It was on the news recently that scientists are on the verge of recovering the entire genome of neanderthals and the idea of cloning a neanderthal is being discussed. Here's a link with some information.
As a few of us have mentioned before scientists have already established that neanderthals were not human but a different species and this has been proven with dna testing. There are a number of interesting and important issues regarding such an endeavor. The most obvious one is the fact that neanderthals were much closer to modern humans and it raises some ethical questions. Of course creationists have been claiming neanderthals were human for decades but that was proven to be false. Personally I would lean towards doing it. We would learn alot about evolution and actually be able to observe the differences between modern humans and a living neaderthal which would be an incredible thing to be able to do. I do think we need to be careful about what we do with these kinds of advances in technology and genetics but in general it can be said that if something can be done, sooner or later it will be done. What is your opinion on this issue?
Some of the neanderthal have larger brains then us. We would view it as immoral to clone a human, why wouldn't the same rules apply to a equal, or more intelligent creature then us?
Say we found a loop hole around that, what are they going to do, keep a human like creature locked up for the rest of its life?
Neanderthal are probably not as stupid as most people believe (basing this off their tools which at the time where more sophisticated then human tools), I find myself not wanting to subject a potentially intelligent being to be reduce to nothing more then a experiment.
"In fact, give a Neanderthal man a shave and a haircut, dress him in well-fitted clothes, and he could probably walk down New York's Fifth Avenue without getting much notice."
--Isaac Asimov
As an Archaeologist it would be fascinating but ethically I am deeply opposed to using what is a human being as a toy for our "amusement" ( whether scientifical or not).
A human being is a sentient being with feelings,emotions and a Neanderthal is basically us with less technological advances. The idea of human experimentation of this kind is actually quite repellent to me.
I have spent years visiting Prehistoric Painted and Engraved Caves painted by Upper Paleolithic man ( which came at the very end of Neanderthal) , all of them a beautiful, moving and eloquent reminder of our proximity in terms of human emotions and appreciation of beauty. I would extend to same courtesy to Neanderthal man. That thread of shared humanity is not to be discarded because of scientific questions we may have.
As fascinating and exciting as our discoveries might be, a human being is not a lab rat and never should be, especially unwittingly.
One cannot gauge the impact that bringing back a Neanderthal would have on his well being and psyche and it is risk I am personally not willing to take especially simply in the pursuit of pure knowledge with no practical application that I can think of.
Sometimes I feel it would be good for us modern humans to leave well alone and not do things "simply because we can ". When something like a human being's fragile well being is at risk it is not worth it ethically. Science can often want to believe it has all the rights in the world simply because of the advancement of knowledge and I repudiate that right.
We must in the scientific follow rigorous boundaries in our behaviour and ethical standards as we are first and foremost human beings not robots incapable of empathy and humanity. Science is a wonderful tool and I love it but without a moral compass we are quite literally navigating by blind reckoning. To lose sight of our humanity is a dangerous path to follow.
In the avid quest for intellectual enlightenment we must lose our own humanity in the process. That is a price I am unwilling to pay. Is is a slippery slope when we start treating other human beings, albeit more "primitive" ( by what standards anyway?) like their lives are simply there to assuage a thirst for more data. This would make us into the primitive beings.
Imagine the life of one of those poor human beings, prodded, examined, tested, and also probably spinned into a whirlwind of media interest and frenzy. Pure and sheer hell and what for ? Simply so we can have a better understanding of their beliefs, diet, hunting practises etc... All exciting and valid questions but not at that cost.
Last edited by Mooseketeer; 09-15-2009 at 06:04 AM..
Logically that would be an interesting experiement.
The objections have got to be moral and morality is about enhancing or mussing up other peoples' lives. On one hand, I am not happy about breeding something purely for experimentation for the satisfaction of curiosity. I'm not even happy doing it for the purposes of urgent medical research.
On the other hand, a creature might be given life that otherwise wouldn't have it. It's almost like saving a person from dying.
Whatever the pros and cons, the question of transgressing laws supposedly given by any god should have nothing whatsoever to do with the matter.
"In fact, give a Neanderthal man a shave and a haircut, dress him in well-fitted clothes, and he could probably walk down New York's Fifth Avenue without getting much notice."
--Isaac Asimov
Or walk into a church on Sunday and be accepted as one of the flock.
Of all the Neanderthal men ever to walk this planet, the one born during our era may well me the luckiest. Those were tough conditions he was facing in the past, and I don't doubt for a second he would be able to adapt just fine to the leisurely lifestyle we enjoy today.
I think the bigger danger is that they would become an invasive species. So I don't think they should be allowed to breed. But I would be in favor of a few one or two offs, for scientific purposes.
I know its not the commonly accepted answer here, but I would be in favor of the idea.
Someone earlier asked who would be the mother? We could always approach octomom
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
