{"id":14431,"date":"2013-01-22T05:45:25","date_gmt":"2013-01-22T10:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=14431"},"modified":"2013-01-22T21:51:08","modified_gmt":"2013-01-23T02:51:08","slug":"having-a-neanderthal-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2013\/01\/having-a-neanderthal-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"Having a Neanderthal baby"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A Harvard geneticist is seeking a woman to be the surrogate mother of a Neanderthal baby.\u00a0 From the London Daily Mail<\/em>:<\/p>\n

They\u2019re usually thought of as a brutish, primitive species.<\/p>\n

So what woman would want to give birth to a Neanderthal baby?<\/p>\n

Yet this incredible scenario is the plan of one of the world\u2019s leading geneticists, who is seeking a volunteer to help bring man\u2019s long-extinct close relative back to life.<\/p>\n

Professor George Church of Harvard Medical School believes he can reconstruct Neanderthal DNA and resurrect the species which became extinct 33,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

His scheme is reminiscent of Jurassic Park but, while in the film dinosaurs were created in a laboratory, Professor Church\u2019s ambitious plan requires a human volunteer.<\/p>\n

He said his analysis of Neanderthal genetic code using samples from bones is complete enough to reconstruct their DNA.<\/p>\n

\n

He said: \u2018Now I need an adventurous female human.<\/p>\n

\u2018It depends on a hell of a lot of things, but I think it can be done.\u2019<\/p>\n

Professor Church\u2019s plan would begin by artificially creating Neanderthal DNA based on genetic code found in fossil remains. He would put this DNA into stem cells.<\/p>\n

These would be injected into cells from a human embryo in the early stages of life.<\/p>\n

It is thought that the stem cells would steer the development of the hybrid embryo on Neanderthal lines, rather than human ones.<\/p>\n

After growing in the lab for a few days, the \u2018neo-Neanderthal\u2019 embryo would be implanted in the womb of a surrogate mother \u2013 the volunteer. Professor Church, 58, is a pioneer in synthetic biology who helped initiate the Human Genome Project that mapped our DNA.<\/p>\n

via \u2018Adventurous human woman\u2019 wanted to give birth to Neanderthal man by Harvard professor | Mail Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Where do we even start with this?<\/p>\n

UPDATE:\u00a0 But thanks to reader \u201cnqb\u201d for finding this<\/a>, in which the geneticist says that he was mistranslated and that he isn\u2019t ready to do it yet, at least.\u00a0 Society first has to accept human cloning.\u00a0 I was wondering how he would get this by Harvard\u2019s Institutional Review Board, which all universities have to have to approve research projects involving human experimentation.<\/p>\n

But still. . . .Someone should write a science fiction book about this scenario.\u00a0 (Think of the plight of the young Neanderthal as he grows up.\u00a0 A mother\u2013what would she be feeling?\u2013but no biological father at all.\u00a0 His adaptations are to a world that no longer exists, and he has no adaptations to today.\u00a0 He has no tribe.\u00a0 Not even another member of his sub-species on earth.\u00a0 How lonely he would be.\u00a0 How alienated.\u00a0 The geneticist seems not to even consider such things!\u00a0 In our book, the Neanderthal would probably use his primeval strength, driven by hopelessness, to do terrible things.\u00a0 But it would raise the question of who is really the one who is monstrous.<\/p>\n

HT:\u00a0 G.McLoughlin<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Harvard geneticist is seeking a woman to be the surrogate mother of a Neanderthal baby.\u00a0 From the London Daily Mail: They\u2019re usually thought of as a brutish, primitive species. So what woman would want to give birth to a Neanderthal baby? 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