Scientists Seek ‘Adventurous Woman’ To Give Birth To Neanderthal

Fact checked
Scientists search for woman willing to give birth to Neanderthal man

A group of scientists at the Harvard Medical School are looking for a brave volunteer who would be willing to give birth to a modern day Neanderthal baby. 

The team, led by Professor George Church, hopes to reconstruct Neanderthal DNA and resurrect the extinct species which died off 33,000 years ago.

Dailymail.co.uk reports:

His scheme is reminiscent of Jurassic Park but, while in the film dinosaurs were created in a laboratory, Professor Church’s ambitious plan requires a human volunteer.

He said his analysis of Neanderthal genetic code using samples from bones is complete enough to reconstruct their DNA.

He said: ‘Now I need an adventurous female human.

‘It depends on a hell of a lot of things, but I think it can be done.’

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.

It is thought that the stem cells would steer the development of the hybrid embryo on Neanderthal lines, rather than human ones.

After growing in the lab for a few days, the ‘neo-Neanderthal’ embryo would be implanted in the womb of a surrogate mother – the volunteer. Professor Church, 58, is a pioneer in synthetic biology who helped initiate the Human Genome Project that mapped our DNA.

 

 

He says Neanderthals were not the lumbering brutes of the  stereotype, but highly intelligent. Their brains were roughly the same size as man’s, and they made primitive tools.

He believes his project could  benefit mankind.

He told German magazine Der Spiegel: ‘Neanderthals might think differently than we do. They could even be more intelligent than us.

‘When the time comes to deal with an epidemic or getting off the planet, it’s conceivable that their way of thinking could be beneficial.’

Scientists say that his plan is theoretically possible, although in Britain, like most countries, human reproductive cloning is a criminal offence.

But Professor Church’s proposal is so cutting-edge that it may not be covered by existing laws.

However, experts worry that neo-Neanderthals might lack the immunity to modern diseases to survive, and some fear that the process might lead to deformity.

There is also uncertainty over how they would fit into today’s world. Bioethicist Bernard Rollin of Colorado State University said: ‘I don’t think it’s fair to put people… into a circumstance where they are going to be mocked and possibly feared.’

In a scathing reaction, Philippa Taylor of the Christian Medical Fellowship said: ‘It is hard to know where to begin with the ethical and safety concerns.’

13 Comments

  1. ” ‘It is hard to know where to begin with the ethical and safety concerns.’ ”

    I’d have to agree with that. To begin with, would the Neanderthal be fully considered to be human and thus granted the same rights and privileges and protections as any other human being? And if they were NOT so considered… what standards WOULD apply to dealing with a Neanderthal during their life span? Could/would they be caged like lab rats for scientists to experiment on? Could Neanderthals, if judged non-human, be raised as organ donors?

    Could one cast the possibly deciding single vote choosing between the Hillary and the Donald? (And would their vote be wiser than that of the average American?)

    – MJM, not nearly cute enough to be a Neanderthal…

  2. ” ‘It is hard to know where to begin with the ethical and safety concerns.’ ”

    I’d have to agree with that. To begin with, would the Neanderthal be fully considered to be human and thus granted the same rights and privileges and protections as any other human being? And if they were NOT so considered… what standards WOULD apply to dealing with a Neanderthal during their life span? Could/would they be caged like lab rats for scientists to experiment on? Could Neanderthals, if judged non-human, be raised as organ donors?

    Could one cast the possibly deciding single vote choosing between the Hillary and the Donald? (And would their vote be wiser than that of the average American?)

    – MJM, not nearly cute enough to be a Neanderthal…

  3. Quite a few of us who have had DNA testing know very well that we possess Neanderthal DNA even today, usually at between 2 and 9 percent.

  4. Quite a few of us who have had DNA testing know very well that we possess Neanderthal DNA even today, usually at between 2 and 9 percent.

  5. Impossible, id like to see a man synthetically recreate a genome via guesswork. Its hard enough to do this type of replication with mammals that we can actively take the genetic information, check out how much of a failure ‘Dolly’ the sheep was…

  6. I believe the misconception to be that we killed off the Neanderthals when instead I truely think that humanoid species of that era were able to replicate with each other as dog species can creating the Homo-sapien species we know and are today which then utilized tools and better survived than the other forms of Bipedal Mammalians.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.