Neanderthal cloning

[gfish]

Just saw a neat link talking about Neanderthal cloning. And I know this is my neophile, technocratic side talking, but my only response to the idea is an immediate "do it do it do it!"

Caveats: Assuming we have figured out the cloning of large mammals and have worked our way up through chimps with a high confidence of success. Obviously making deformed babies that die within hours of birth is bad. But that's just a technical problem which will be fixed eventually. At that point... why not? I really don't find the other arguments persuasive. The kids won't fit in? That was the argument a justice of the peace in Louisiana used last month to deny a marriage permit to an interracial couple! The fact that we won't learn about native Neanderthal culture is both stunningly obvious and irrelevant. There is still so much we could learn about their capabilities. Really, the suggestion that we clone a bunch and put them in a little paleolithic enclave is the most revolting "solution" in the article. What an ugly idea, forcing sentients to live a squalid life under the excuse of keeping them "natural".

Comments

[avhn.livejournal.com]

I wonder what the perceived moral difference is between cloning an neanderthal and cloning primates in general (chimp or human). It seems that, culturally, there is a difference, but I'm not sure how that's justified or at all logical

[gfish.livejournal.com]

That's one of the things I find most interesting about this. If we had a clutch of Neanderthals walking around, surely that would accelerate the process of extending some form of personhood to all the great apes? The more plainly the soft continuum of sentience is, the harder it is to say humans occupy some magical special place in the world.

[avhn.livejournal.com]

I think part of it must be that we consider speech to be such a specialized tool that "sets us apart," but I have a lot of trouble with that considering that chimps can learn basic signs and many species have learned communication. The idea of establishing that continuum more clearly seems valuable, but it also seems like people are thinking of Neanderthals as totally different and not on the continuum at all, which strikes me as odd.