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So why not do it? Why not give Harvard’s George Church the money he says could be used to resurrect a Neanderthal from DNA? I’m bracing for a long list of obje
by davi 18y ago
So why not do it? Why not give Harvard’s George Church the money he says could be used to resurrect a Neanderthal from DNA?
I’m bracing for a long list of objections from the world’s self-appointed keepers of bioethics
Good. Brace yourself, Mr. Tierney.
First, let's do a little googling. Find, for example, this article: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/baby/clon_silver.html http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/baby/clon_silver.html
It's perfectly clear that if cloning works in every other mammal in which it's been tried, it will work in human beings. But at the moment, there is a pretty high frequency of birth defects in these other animals. There are a large number of cloned calves that are born too big and have health problems. As long as that frequency of birth defects is high, and we can't control it, then it would be unethical to use this technology to try to bring about the birth of a child.
OK. So let's pretend you could find a human carrier to gestate your transgenic Neanderthal baby for you.
And let's pretend that in course of trying figuring out how to bring a Neanderthal baby to term, 50% abort spontaneously in the third trimester.
Let's pretend that in the course of trying to get a Neanderthal baby to the age of 18, 50% die of various congenital malformations.
Let's pretend that a Neanderthal is at least as self aware as a homo sapiens with Down Syndrome.
Now, let's spend your $30 million elsewhere, please.
God, what a trollish article. But it worked on me.
This is the kind of article that actually scares people and gets them confused about something relatively innocuous, like stem cells. I have flipped the bozo bit on this guy. And if George Church is really in favor of this idea, I'll flip the bozo bit on him, too.
- gravitycop 18y agolet's pretend you could find a human carrier to gestate your transgenic Neanderthal baby for you. How about a chimpanzee carrier, as George Church suggested? http://www.google.com/search?q=george+church+chimpanzee+neanderthal http://www.google.com/search?q=george+church+chimpanzee+nean... http://reason.com/news/printer/131717.html http://reason.com/news/printer/131717.html Church would modify a modern human genome so that its DNA matches the Neanderthal version. [...] this Neanderthal genome would not be inserted into a human cell but instead into a chimpanzee cell. This chimp cell would be reprogrammed to an embryonic state, and then introduced into a chimpanzee's womb where it would develop into a Neanderthal infant.
- davi 18y agoGood links, thanks. But do you think a chimpanzee carrier makes it okay to inflict (with reasonably high likelihood) mutations and health problems on animals you are expecting will have near-human, or even human, levels of intelligence? I don't.
- gravitycop 18y agodo you think a chimpanzee carrier makes it okay to inflict What is the test for "okay"? okay to inflict (with reasonably high likelihood) mutations and health problems on animals you are expecting will have near-human, or even human, levels of intelligence? They could be aborted, instead, by not carrying out the project. http://news.google.com/news?q=abortion+birth+defects http://news.google.com/news?q=abortion+birth+defects In the process, an entire race of humans, or near humans, would also be aborted. http://news.google.com/news?q=racial+genocide http://news.google.com/news?q=racial+genocide
- jacquesm 18y agotroll alert...