If you're a news junkie like me you probably couldn't resist clicking on the recent Internet news headline suggesting that scientists were searching for women to give birth to Neanderthal babies. It sounded like something right out of Jurassic Park, only involving an earlier version of homo sapiens (that's science-speak for humans) instead of dinosaurs. Unfortunately, the article didn't live up to its billing and I felt somewhat duped and disappointed.
Some scientist whose name I can't recall predicted that one day within the next hundred years researchers would attempt to clone a Neanderthal baby by implanting Neanderthal DNA in the nucleus of a fertilized human egg. I'm not sure what the point of such an exercise would be, but it does raise my eyebrows a bit because I think we already have more Neanderthals than are necessary running loose in this world. The last thing we need is to clone more!
Don't get me wrong; I'm all for science. That includes medical stuff on the cutting edge, plus anything the Vatican finds objectionable, but a guy has to draw a line somewhere and I draw mine at Neanderthal cloning.
Isn't it enough that university frat houses churn out more Neanderthal graduates each year than biologist can clone sheep? What good would a few more beer-guzzling bozos do for humanity's ever-expanding gene pool? I just don't see it!
No comments:
Post a Comment