# Would it be immoral to resurrect a Neanderthal from recovered DNA? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 1, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493 "2009-01-01T19:08:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/41 "2009-01-02T17:44:45Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > Of course, then we put two Neanderthals in a gladiatorial cage match to see how well they battle to the death. Somebody cue the “Star Trek” fight music. I bet 2000 Quatloos on the ancient forefather. As long as we treated the Neanderthal with basic human decency, Id be all for it. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Call_Me_Shirley)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/42 "2009-01-02T17:51:47Z")
I bet one of the biggest problems would be conflicts among people with varying opinions on whether Jesus died for that Neanderthal’s sins, and whether the Neanderthals could accept Jesus Christ into their hearts as their personal savior. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/43 "2009-01-02T17:54:21Z")
What if it turned out that the Neanderthal was Jesus? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/44 "2009-01-02T18:04:08Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > You won’t even reliably get information on what sounds Neanderthals couldn’t make after the new Neanderthal grows up, since they might go through something similar to what modern humans do. We’re born able to make and distinguish sounds that don’t occur in our native language… Even knowing that a Neanderthal is _capable_ of making modern human sounds would be useful. It might tell us how Neanderthals interacted with other hominid varieties — if Jondalar and Ayla could teach Durc the language, so to speak. It’s true that nothing will tell us what their ancient language was actually like, but then again, nothing short of time travel ever did. Presuming we willen have on-invented it and willen have pre-used it. > [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > I bet 2000 Quatloos on the ancient forefather. Dibs on the babe in the silver outfit. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/45 "2009-01-02T18:06:54Z")
Perhaps this would be of interest: [The Ugly Little Boy - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_Little_Boy) I’m afraid we’d screw up a solitary Neanderthal’s life, or the lives of a group of them, if we created them using recovered DNA. We can’t even adequately care for the many abused and neglected children in our world. I’m no Luddite, but I’d say better not to try the Neanderthal experiment at all. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/46 "2009-01-02T18:15:48Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > …if Jondalar and Ayla could teach Durc the language, so to speak… Durc was only 1/2 Neanderthal, for the record. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/47 "2009-01-02T18:19:55Z")
> [@astro](#): > > [Young Neanderthal girl](http://www.rdos.net/neanderthal.jpg) [Apparently another young Neanderthal girl](http://cdn.maximonline.com/uploadedCmsFiles/Slides/37_ashley_olsen_2980.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/48 "2009-01-02T18:23:24Z")
Back to the op, the _ethics_ of bringing our distant cousins back into existence (if it was indeed technologically feasible) … I think a few questions are suggested: Is existence as a species preferable to nonexistence? Is withholding recreation once we have the power to do so an ethical act? What is the intent of bringing them back? Are we trying to exploit them in some way, be it for entertainment, or for edification, or as a slave class, or to make up for the historic genocide our species likely committed against theirs? What would be the real risks to modern human society, if any? By necessity the scientists would be subjecting a sentient hominid to an experimental protocol without consent (the process of being created and placed into a modern environment, even one designed to be as ideal for the species as we can manage based on current knowledge). Who is entrusted with giving consent for the species and for the individuals to be and on what basis? And of course what would be the status within society if integrated with modern humans or between societies if placed on that imagined isolated island? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/49 "2009-01-02T18:24:06Z")
> [@Cluricaun](#): > > [Apparently another young Neanderthal girl](http://cdn.maximonline.com/uploadedCmsFiles/Slides/37_ashley_olsen_2980.jpg). I volunteer to care for her in an entirely moral way. :: cough :: ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/50 "2009-01-02T18:32:32Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Durc was only 1/2 Neanderthal, for the record. Exactly my point. I mention them all purposely. Ayla was raised by Neanderthals — surely this was not an isolated and fictional incident. Humans find babies of all virtually all mammalian species cute, and we keep them and raise them. Could she have learned to speak Clan? Could there be interbreeding? If so, could there be a half-Neanderthal capable of acting as an intermediary between the two hominid groups? If such a thing were possible — or impossible — it would tell us a great deal about the _potential_ for interaction between the two groups. Did they exchange ideas? _Could_ they exchange ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/51 "2009-01-02T20:05:51Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > On the plus side, GEICO’s advertising department would be happy to hire him. The real issue with GEICO is their creation of Human-Reptile Chimeras. On Topic: I think it might be better to wait 100 years and emulate the Neanderthal genome on a futuristic super computer. They can make as many faux Neanderthals as they want virtually and don’t have to worry about the suffering. Once they find out the fiddly bits about drug interactions, nutritional requirements, language capability and mental capacity it’ll be easier to decide whether to resurrect the race. In fact you can run whole tribes of Neanderthals on the computer and allow them to create their own language and culture and history. Then you can program robots to care for the first physical Neanderthal babies and raise them in that culture. Once the second generation comes around, you can take a step back and let them become self sustaining. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/52 "2009-01-02T20:29:05Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > The real issue with GEICO is their creation of Human-Reptile Chimeras. > > On Topic: I think it might be better to wait 100 years and emulate the Neanderthal genome on a futuristic super computer. They can make as many faux Neanderthals as they want virtually and don’t have to worry about the suffering. Once they find out the fiddly bits about drug interactions, nutritional requirements, language capability and mental capacity it’ll be easier to decide whether to resurrect the race. > > In fact you can run whole tribes of Neanderthals on the computer and allow them to create their own language and culture and history. Then you can program robots to care for the first physical Neanderthal babies and raise them in that culture. Once the second generation comes around, you can take a step back and let them become self sustaining. If it can be done, I expect someone will do it. After all, various totalitarian governments have done much worse throughout history. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/53 "2009-01-02T22:07:56Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > Ayla was raised by Neanderthals — surely this was not an isolated and fictional incident. Humans find babies of all virtually all mammalian species cute, and we keep them and raise them. Could she have learned to speak Clan? Maybe it’s just me, but I think determining the verisimilitude of a Jean Auel sex romp is rather a poor justification for going to the trouble of manufacturing a caveman from laboriously extracted bone juice. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/54 "2009-01-02T22:11:58Z")
Dude. I’ve been over the justification, here: [babes in silver outfits](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/STGameTrisk.jpg). Try to keep up. 😉 In any case, the mention of Ayla, Jondalar and Durc was just as an illustration that people would be familiar with. And anyway, I figure only one of 'em would look good in that silver outfit. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/55 "2009-01-03T04:13:46Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > The real issue with GEICO is their creation of Human-Reptile Chimeras. > > On Topic: I think it might be better to wait 100 years and emulate the Neanderthal genome on a futuristic super computer. They can make as many faux Neanderthals as they want virtually and don’t have to worry about the suffering. […] > > In fact you can run whole tribes of Neanderthals on the computer and allow them to create their own language and culture and history. Hmmm… If the “emulated” Neanderthals are realistic enough for us to draw conclusions about their culture or language, I fail to see how it would be different from an actual Neanderthal, hence how it couldn’t cause any suffering. Regarding the OP question… even though there might be arguments making such a thing immoral, and can’t bring myself to thinking it is obviously so. And I’m fascinated enough by them to support such an experiment without thinking too much about the ethical aspect of it, providing we “resurrect” a bunch of them and not without regard for their well-being. Also, I strongly suspect we’re responsible for their demise (actually, looking at our behaviour, I’m 100% sure we are), and somehow feel we’ve some sort of blurry moral duty to give the specie a new start if we can. Plus, we wouldn’t be alone any more. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/56 "2009-01-03T04:29:05Z")
Besides, we could establish a homeland for them somewhere. Maybe in the Middle East? That seems to work pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/57 "2009-01-03T04:57:23Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Taxonomy is conservative, and the spelling shouldn’t change just because the modern language changed. Dear God, it changed since I was in high school German! “Thal” was “valley,” plain and simple. And, as I learned it, “TH” was more voiced, like “DT,” than “T.” And “CH” is a gutteral I practiced long and hard to master. It’s NOT a simple “K.” I frickin’ HATE the Germans! This is why I cannot speak German with my daughter. :mad: Er, not that I was ever any good at it. Oh, answering the OP, I’m all in favor of it and think much of the anti-Neanderthal propaganda would be proven false. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/58 "2009-01-03T16:45:01Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Dear God, it changed since I was in high school German! “Thal” was “valley,” plain and simple. And, as I learned it, “TH” was more voiced, like “DT,” than “T.” Yeah, one argument for changing the spelling (in English) is to get people to stop pronouncing it like “TH” (in English). German \*thal \*(now _tal_) is a cognate of dale and Scandinavial \*dal \*(a common ending in last names), although I believe older spellings preserve the \*dahl \*version, at least in Norwegian. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/59 "2009-01-03T19:14:29Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Hmmm… If the “emulated” Neanderthals are realistic enough for us to draw conclusions about their culture or language, I fail to see how it would be different from an actual Neanderthal, hence how it couldn’t cause any suffering. I don’t think a sophisticated emulation would by necessity be conscious and self aware. It could act like it perfectly, but I don’t think there would have to be someone home. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493/60 "2009-01-04T05:13:16Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Perhaps this would be of interest: [The Ugly Little Boy - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_Little_Boy) > > I’m afraid we’d screw up a solitary Neanderthal’s life, or the lives of a group of them, if we created them using recovered DNA. We can’t even adequately care for the many abused and neglected children in our world. I’m no Luddite, but I’d say better not to try the Neanderthal experiment at all. Besides that book - which is pretty much the OP’s question in novel - also read Raising Abel by W. Michael Gear for more thoughts about how ethical it would be to recreate/bring a Neanderthal into modern-day society. It would be terribly selfish to do this, and would benefit us much more than the poor neanderthal in question. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-immoral-to-resurrect-a-neanderthal-from-recovered-dna/479493.md?page=4)