Wanted: Surrogate for Neanderthal Baby

technologyreview.com

9 points·nekojima··5 comments

First, I'm highly dubious that a reconstructed Neanderthal embryo is really that viable: look at the success rates of assisted reproduction when the parents are alive and in the room, let alone dead for tens of millenia!

Second, what ethics board would approve this experiment? There are risks to the surrogate mother, and, even if the child did come to term, what are the chances that it would be physically healthy? What about its psychological health?

As with mammoths, I can see the appeal, but this is about human beings.

> look at the success rates of assisted reproduction when the parents are alive and in the room

What are the success rates?

> Second, what ethics board would approve this experiment?

Probably one outside of the United States. Which makes me excited to meet a Neanderthal, but very worried about their treatment in a country that would go forward with this experiment.

_> What are the success rates?_

Poking around on the HFEA website, I found the national averages for the UK. Using fresh embryos from donor eggs (which seems the closest equivalent to the present case), 31.7% of embryo transfers result in a live birth.

That will vary by clinic and country, of course.

Source: http://guide.hfea.gov.uk/guide/HeadlineData.aspx?code=157...

"I could have been a human being. Instead you twisted me."

That guy's going to have issues.

Additional coverage:

http://gawker.com/5977130/could-you-be-the-adventurous-woman...

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/medizin/genforscher-georg... (in German)

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