Neanderthal Clone Poll Finds Most Americans Oppose Cloning Human Relative
By Emily Swanson,
Huffington Post
| 01. 30. 2013
Recently, reports
spread like wildfire that Harvard geneticist George Church was seeking an "adventurous female human" to be a surrogate mother to a cloned Neanderthal. Church clarified that he was theorizing about the requirements for a Neanderthal clone, rather than actively trying to create one. For now, there's no indication that any scientist is actively attempting to clone a Neanderthal. But a
new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds that most Americans are opposed to allowing any scientist to attempt such a feat -- with or without a human surrogate.
The survey found that only 17 percent of Americans said scientists should be allowed to clone a Neanderthal if it were possible, while 63 percent said it should not be allowed. Support for the idea dropped even lower (though not by much) if a human surrogate were required -- 15 percent said scientists should be allowed to clone a Neanderthal and 66 percent said it should not be allowed under those circumstances.
Some bioethicists have suggested that
cloning a Neanderthal would be unethical. A Neanderthal clone may lack immunity to modern infections...
Related Articles
By Meagan Parrish, PharmaVoice | 10.10.2025
When CEO Ben Lamm steps into the spotlight, it’s usually to talk about his efforts bringing extinct animals back to life. Once a far-flung idea, Lamm and the company he heads, Colossal Biosciences, have proven they can pull it off...
By Aleks Krotoski, The Guardian | 09.28.2025
Imagine you’re the leader of one of the most powerful nations in the world. You have everything you could want at your disposal: power, influence, money. But, the problem is, your time at the top is fleeting. I’m not...
GeneWatch UK has prepared a briefing on the genetic modification of nature for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Congress in October 2025
The upcoming Congress claims to be “where the world comes together to set priorities and drive conservation and sustainable development action.” A major concern for those on the outside is that the Congress may advance plans to develop and encourage the use of synthetic biology in nature conservation. This could at first glance sound like...
By Peter de Kruijff, ABC News | 09.16.2025
Do you wonder where your meat comes from? Maybe it is organic, wild harvested, or farmed.
Or perhaps it was designed in a lab.
Faster-growing fish, heat-tolerant cows and disease-resistant pigs are among a new class of animals that are...