‘Adventurous’ Woman Needed as Surrogate for Neanderthal Baby
‘Adventurous’ Woman Needed as Surrogate for Neanderthal Baby
Are you an adventurous human woman? Adventurous enough to be a surrogate mother for the first Neanderthal baby to be born in 30,000 years?
Harvard geneticist George Church recently told Der Spiegel he’s close to developing the necessary technology to clone a Neanderthal, at which point all he’d need is an “adventurous human woman” — einen abenteuerlustigen weiblichen Menschen — to act as a surrogate mother.
It’s not out of the question at all. As MIT Technology Review‘s Susan Young points out, scientists cloned an extinct subspecies of ibex in 2009. It died immediately, sure. But they still cloned it.
What would that entail? According to a 2008 study of a Neanderthal infant skeleton (from which the above image is taken), “the head of the Neanderthal newborn was somewhat longer than that of a human newborn because of its relatively robust face,” and Neanderthal women generally had a wider birth canal than human women. Neanderthal birth was simpler than human birth, because Neanderthal infants didn’t have to rotate to get to the birth canal, but otherwise the processes were very similar. (Even so, I imagine all but the most adventurous of human women would opt for a C-section in this case.)
Once the baby’s out, though, you’re in good shape — Neanderthal babies are thought to have grown much more quickly than their human counterparts. And Church seems to think that there’ll be a Neanderthal craze, as he told Bloomberg Businessweek last year:
“We have lots of Neanderthal parts around the lab. We are creating Neanderthal cells. Let’s say someone has a healthy, normal Neanderthal baby. Well, then, everyone will want to have a Neanderthal kid. Were they superstrong or supersmart? Who knows? But there’s one way to find out.”
That is SO COOL.
“Who knows? But there’s one way to find out.”
Will somebody please call the ethics board?
No, don’t call them. The ethics board has been holding scientific progress back far more than it has any business doing, and this experiment is totally harmless.
I thought that board was made up of a bunch of Neanderthals already. I apologize but, my primitive brain just couldn’t resist.
Totally would.
I’d rather opt for raising a little Neanderthal. That would be an awesome challenge.
1:FUND IT
2:MAKE NEANDERTHAL-LEAGUE FOOTBALL
3:AWESOME STUFF HAPPENS (????)
4:PROFIT!
nott to be racist but why not just adopt an African kid as a “human pet” you’re going to have a Neanderthal? there are tons if them, and it’ll be much cheaper.
You’re a fucking moron. It’s a different species entirely. And too fucking bad asshole, you are a racist piece of shit.
There. Done.
Sir Rowan, You are most opinionated in a very disagreeable and disrespectful manner. I do say, old chap, that it is most apparent: If you had one more wit, you would be a half-wit.
At the risk of feeding a troll, I’d like to point out that all modern humans not of sub-saharan African descent are 1-4% Neanderthal already, so most humans around the world are hybrids to some degree, not pure “Homo Sapiens.” So technically speaking, any other ethnicity aside from Africans would be more “Neanderthal.”
But yeah, I’d like to see this project succeed. We’ve been holding science back for too long due to Victorian boogeymen tales written by kids and unfounded mysticism.
Because neanderthals are smarter.
I’m concerned about the ethics of this. What justification is there to bring a single, sentient humanoid into the world where he or she will never find other Neanderthals to breed or communicate with (obviously Neanderthals were also highly social primates). Alongside this, the genetic drive to breed could never be accomplished and it’s not as if the individual would have any chance of normal friendships with humans with the stigma that will surround their very existence. Who actually that this is anything other than deplorable? I would like to know more about the scientific justification for this, because I can see the massive moral debates and legal and ethical issues this will cause will vastly outweigh any benefits to evolutionary biology…
Not true – Neanderthals can breed with humans as evidenced by many DNA strains found in Europe.
Fuck the ethics board, let Science do its thing! Besides the kid’ll be fine.
You are so right Harry Allard. I would be sorry for that creature, an elephant man comes to mind
Unless you’re a pure-blood Sub-Saharan African, you’re a Neanderthal hybrid to some extent. That in and of itself debunks the idea that they can’t cross-breed or find a home amongst Homo Sapiens society. If they can interbreed and generally interact with us successfully, that basically means that they’re a nearly-identical variant that still comfortable fits under the umbrella of “humanity.”
If the surrogate mother is human, then will the child inherit genes from the mother and not be a pure Neanderthal?
No. A surrogate quite often has the already fertilised egg placed in her womb, hence a mum and dad can have their very own baby but the lady just carries the baby. They don’t need to use the ladies eggs at all.
No, they will remove all genetic information from the mother’s egg. Then use 100% of the Neanderthal’s genes. It is called a clone for a reason.
All the genes will be neaderthal, but an interesting quirk of biology comes into play. Mitochondiral DNA is inherited cytoplasmically from the mother, so that will be human mitochondria. The same thing happens in other high order mammals, the ibex they referred to I think was gestated in a cow. Is it technically part cow? It comes down to how you wish to define what exactly a species is. And taxonomists are divided on a million and one issues, including this one. Hope that clears it up
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SCIENCE FUCK YEAH.
Although, what could the side effects of this be.
What if the neanderthals do indeed turn out to be much smarter?
What if they enslave us in the near future?
I question the bioethics of such a experiment, if the child is sentient would it be granted human rights? Would it be allowed to enter society? Surely if it processes self awareness and a mental capacity analogous to modern humans it would be unethical to deny it human rights. If it is some how impaired would it be wrong to continue to purposely produce individuals at a diminished capacity?
This is wrong, what ever comes out of the mother has to be exterminated.
Only humans must be allowed to be on the top of the foodchain on Earth, not a single species has the right to share the place we have as of today.
Never a more bigoted, ignorant word was spoken. It’s exactly THAT kind of thinking that was used to justify slavery.
Any species that can take our position from us “deserves” it. Besides, even if you ignore the fact that this experiment is just about creating one individual (and we’re talking about perishable life here, not a Terminator-style invincible killing machine) Humans and Neanderthals have lived side by side before, and we have already won that evolutionary race. Clearly there is something about Homo Sapiens that gives us an advantage from the word “Go” over Homo Neanderthalensis. And If it is brought up by a kind, decent family there is no reason to suspect that it would not be a happy, well-adjusted child and grow to function well in society.
That is, if scared, angry, small-minded bigots like you can resist bullying, abusing and lynching them.
Dr. Church,
As the Owner of a professional sports franchise, I can imagine grooming a male Neanderthal baby to serve as one of the next generation of super athletes. Would it be possible for me to promote more research and provide funding for the actual cloning? Might I sign up to purchase one of the (preferably) male clones? Also, I may be of help in providing female surrogate mothers chosen from women I know who have wider than normal birth canals. I’ll be in touch.
So they’re looking for a woman that would give birth to a baby who, according to Susan Young, would probably die immediately??
Why don’t Susan Young try it out herself?
I think this would profit sports. Imagine a Neanderthal playing football. That would be so awesome!!!
I will do it. Contact me.
Yeah..I’m all for science and what not but this seems a little crazy. Doesn’t anybody think that? To me it seems like they’re trying to make this a new fashion trend. “Let’s say someone has a healthy, normal Neanderthal baby. Well, then, everyone will want to have a Neanderthal kid.” that’s almost the same as teenage girls wanting babies to show off and dress up etc. without knowing the full responsibilities of it. I don’t know maybe we should leave what was in the past in the past..they’re extinct for a reason so let’s let that be.
Would this create a nephillim?
I imagine the child will have a productive life filming insurance commercials.
I think they should do it as a proof on concept. That it can be done. If you can do a Neaderthal you can do a human right. But considering that our species has yet to create an ideal global society, I don’t think involving another sentient species, who may have totally different ideas of how to run a society, is a good idea.
I would do it, but I would be really not cool with carrying a baby for 9 months only for it to live its life in a lab. I would probably do a runner with it.
[...] więcej słyszy się o absurdach w społeczeństwie. Jednym z nich może być ten news. George Church – genetyk z hhuniwersytetu harvarda powiedział ostatnio o technologii [...]
[...] więcej słyszy się o absurdach w społeczeństwie. Jednym z nich może być ten news. George Church – genetyk z hhuniwersytetu harvarda powiedział ostatnio o technologii [...]
They should contact my aunt. Judging from her kids, she already has experience doing this.
Wow this is insane. I wonder if he or she will be less intelligent than average human. And… will have a soul? o.O
Obviously we r going to watch `Planet of Apes` in real:)
They will put a neandertal male and neandertal female into some reservation (probably a nice park / forest) in order to watch them. But wait, you all know this story from the Bible. More advanced species (homo sapiens in this case) create another species (neandertals) and watch them!!
This is as if the women were a surrogate for a child with a down syndrom.
Kto z wykopu?
Best Response goes to Randdom, however, in subsequent I disagree. Where we have failed in creating ideal global society is partly that we have not understood nor sought to understand the ideas of other sentient species.
Wittiest Response goes to Dewfus.
You go Carol; I was thinking the same thing. I agree too, with anonn; I’d only surrogate if labs were not the life sentence for the being. Good questions and comments by many others. I enjoyed this page.