Should We Resurrect The Neanderthals?

[Lil Red]

+J.M.J.+
[url="http://www.slate.com/id/2205310/"]Article here[/url]
[quote]Here's the next question in the evolution debate: We know roughly how the sequence of life ran forward in time. What about running it backward? How would you feel about rewinding human evolution to a species that's almost like us, but not quite?

Cool, huh? But that's not the half of it. Wade notes:
[quote]The full genome of the Neanderthal, an ancient human species probably driven to extinction by the first modern humans that entered Europe some 45,000 years ago, is expected to be recovered shortly. If the mammoth can be resurrected, the same would be technically possible for Neanderthals.[/quote]
In fact, Wade points out, there are good reasons to re-create a Neanderthal: "No one knows if Neanderthals could speak. A living one would answer that question and many others."

Whoa there, says Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: "Catholic teaching opposes all human cloning, and all production of human beings in the laboratory, so I do not see how any of this could be ethically acceptable in humans." Wade concedes that "there would be several ethical issues in modifying modern human DNA to that of another human species."

Note the qualifiers: modern human DNA. Another human species. As this uncomfortable reality of the past becomes a future prospect—transitional creatures between human and nonhuman—the "human dignity" framework starts to look a bit shaky. George Church, a leading geneticist, suggests (in Wade's paraphrase) that scientists could "modify not a human genome but that of the chimpanzee," bringing it "close enough to that of Neanderthals, [with] the embryo brought to term in a chimpanzee." No human clones or products involved. At least, no "modern" humans. This leaves the question of whether we're entitled to mess around in the lab with "another human species." But it's hard to see how the bishops and other religious critics of biotechnology can plunge into this area, having drawn a tight moral line around our species.[/quote]

[Apotheoun]

And here I thought Joe Biden was a Neanderthal.

[CatherineM]

I wouldn't mind the mammoth. That could be cool, along with many other animals that have become extinct because of us, but not neanderthal. They buried their dead with reverence, so to me that seems very self aware/intelligent. For all I know, they may have had souls.

[Tinkerlina]

I think it'd be a lot easier to watch Encino Man ; Katie

[BG45]

Too close to human for my liking. The mammoth like Catherine said, I could see. But not such a close relative.

[T-Bone _]

[quote name='BG45' post='1711848' date='Nov 26 2008, 05:41 PM']Too close to human for my liking. The mammoth like Catherine said, I could see. But not such a close relative.[/quote]

Neanderthals were homo sapiens. And mammoths are just hairy elephants.

[desertwoman]

Isn't there a theory that Neanderthals intermingled with us?

[mommas_boy]

[quote name='CatherineM' post='1711770' date='Nov 26 2008, 06:00 PM']I wouldn't mind the mammoth. That could be cool, along with many other animals that have become extinct because of us, but not neanderthal. They buried their dead with reverence, so to me that seems very self aware/intelligent. For all I know, they may have had souls.[/quote]

This was my first question as well:

If Neanderthals had immortal, spiritual souls, then cloning one would be unethical. If they did not, then they would be animals: created by God for our use, and it would not be unethical to objectify them.

[Mr_Private_Person]

What's the difference between us an 'them'?

[Tinkerlina]

[quote name='mommas_boy' post='1713032' date='Nov 28 2008, 07:22 PM']This was my first question as well:

If Neanderthals had immortal, spiritual souls, then cloning one would be unethical. If they did not, then they would be animals: created by God for our use, and it would not be unethical to objectify them.[/quote]

Neanderthals were, in my understanding, full humans, but I think cloning is unethical either way. I don't think giving us dominion over animals meant that God intended for us to do whatever we want with them. We are called to respect them as creatures of God and I think cloning is disrespectful of God's creation. -Katie

[Socrates]

Neanderthals are extinct?? Wha . . .?!

[Tinkerlina]

[quote name='Socrates' post='1714067' date='Nov 29 2008, 08:20 PM']Neanderthals are extinct?? Wha . . .?![/quote]

Haha, what would the Geico Caveman say about this thread! -Katie

[jeffpugh]

Wow... crazy... part of me has a morbid curiousity on what it would be like... but on the other hand, let the past remain there... unless it means reviving the mammoth from the DNA found in a mammoth-cicle.

[picchick]

Oh my gosh....

I kept reading this as "Should we resurrect the NETHERLANDS"

I never read it because I thought what????

Edited November 30, 2008 by picchick

[Tinkerlina]

[quote name='picchick' post='1714895' date='Nov 30 2008, 04:11 PM']Oh my gosh....

I kept reading this as "Should we resurrect the NETHERLANDS"

I never read it because I thought what????[/quote]

That's hilarious! -Katie