Pros And Cons Of Cloning Neanderthals

The debate on whether scientists should clone our close relatives, rages on. There are two sides of the coin to this debate: clone and gain information or don’t clone because of the ethical ramifications. Cloning Neanderthals would give the world a better insight into how this species lived and answered age old questions such as: Were they smarter than us humans? Did they interbreed? Are we a separate species? Even though these questions may be answered, there’s quite a few a grey areas that we as a species have not fully grasped yet and there are too many ‘what if’s.’ The side I have chosen is to not clone Neanderthals due to many ethical and social concerns that I will begin to tackle in the next few pages. As anthropologists, we are taught about informed consent and the “do no harm” phrase through various ethical statements (AAA,AIA, etc.) before going out into the field and

Now what? This is where the ethical dilemma gets even more complicated. A Neanderthal would not fit in with our society. With those robust features and large brow ridges- how do you think they would get along with other children? There would be a serious emotional toll on this Neanderthal and would not know how to cope mentally or physically with these pressures from our society. Another question that is brought up is- what does a Neanderthal eat? Archaeologists know that their diet consisted of 97% meat. Since they missed out on the agriculture revolution, one would think that they would have a hard time stomaching our diets that our rich in grain and dairy. What about the climate? Our climate is much different than it was 45 kya. Neanderthals would not adapt well in our warm environments. They were built for cold, harsh environments. Much like Chicago! For any species, we want what is best for them just like we would want for a human. That is, to be born and live physically, mentally and socially healthy