Ethics be damned. The Mail Online informs us that “Professor George Church of Harvard Medical School believes he can reconstruct Neanderthal DNA. His ambitious plan requires a human volunteer willing to allow the DNA to be put into stem cells, then a human embryo.” (“Wanted: ‘Adventurous woman’ to give birth to Neanderthal man — Harvard professor seeks mother for cloned cave baby.“)
Professor Church’s plan would begin by artificially creating Neanderthal DNA based on genetic code found in fossil remains. He would put this DNA into stem cells.
These would be injected into cells from a human embryo in the early stages of life.
Wouldn’t you like to be a fly on the wall when the Prof explains his proposition to an interested potential “host-mom”?
“Right, I want you to give birth to this thing I’ve made in my laboratory. It’s an aborted baby with some DNA that I think is Neanderthal genetic code. (I can show you the fossils it came from — they’re really impressive!) I’m not sure what you’ll actually give birth to, but it will be curious, and might advance science quite a bit. You know, Neanderthals aren’t as dumb as people think. You’re little tyke could become a Harvard professor some day! Here, sign this contract indemnifying Harvard University from legal action in the event of any unlikely medical complications.”
If the reader would like to know what’s wrong with all this, consult Mercator.Net’s Should we clone Neanderthals? and a more general article on human cloning by Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk of the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
