Should this sick professor be sacked?

Well I can't see any ethics committee giving consent for this for a start.
But the thing that would have to be done to get to the point of implanting an embryo are many, and they are not currently possible. So he is just attention grabbing I think rather than "sick". I don't understand why sick?
I can understand why you might say "sick" if he was asking for a woman to give birth to a piglet or something

I agree I don't see this getting past any ethics committee, if this did happen would the child be treated like a freak? It would never be able to lead what we would call a normal life.

The line from Jurassic Park springs to mind "just because we can doesn't mean we should"

Poor old professor. I suppose he has been hideously misquoted in the media.

It would be interexzssti0ng i0f0 it could be done though.

That was the cat's imput, she walked across the keyboard. Looks like she was swearing.

Interesting I meant to say.

I wondered if we had got to April Fools' Day without my noticing. It's not going to happen any time soon. Maybe the DM felt people needed a new outrage outlet.

Nothing sick about it though. There is sometimes talk of possible interbreeding having happened between the two human species.

I like the line from "Jurassic Park" very much, and it sums up the situation. And I think the question of the two species having interbred is used in a novel by William Golding and I am b******d if I can recall the name. Hang on a minute - "The Inheritors". (Had iPod next to iPad. Sad.) It certainly tells a story of the two species.

I am afraid I will have to disagree with you JessM and Bags I honestly think this is totally "sick". Why on earth would a so called professor of genetics even wish to contemplate such a thing? I know it probably won't be allowed to happen, but just imagine the poor baby. deliberately created to be disabled (probably mentally and physically). Possibly with a minimal life expectancy too.

There is no reason to think that Neanderthals had any disabilities. They were extremely successful for tens of thousands of years and adapted to living in a very cold Northern Hemisphere. They were a subspecies of human not sub human. For a very long time homo sapiens was around and not doing anything significantly different to the neanderthals.
I do suspect that they were less aggressive though and that homo sapiens saw them off for this reason. But it could have been an oscillating climate that caused a population crash.
I also see no reason why a neanderthal child could no be brought up successfully - the problems would be more likely to stem from other people knowing, than the child itself. Although they might reach milestones of development earlier (??) The appearance of modern homo sapiens is quite diverse and there would I think be an overlap area in which it was impossible to tell the difference in facial features. Many people have a neanderthal body type - stocky with a wide flaring ribcage, including my own DH, and this might be a direct result of neanderthal genes in our population.
But the most fascinating think about neanderthals is what their culture and language was like and that is something that would not be revealed by such a pointless experiment as the one suggested.

Definitely a pointless exercise. What would he be hoping to prove/show?

It is a big enough responsibility bringing a child into the world without adding any further potential problems that might compromise their happiness and well-being.

I can't agree with this use of stem cell research. I can see the value of research into Parkinsons or other illnesses but what good would this do?

I know there is evidence for some cross breeding between homo sapiens and homo neanderthalensis .....at least one skeleton of a child who seems to have traits of both types of humans has been found but that was natural interbreeding in a totally different form of society. In this case an individual child would be produced who would be a scientific curiousity. Where would this child live? Who would care for it? How long would it be studied? Would the studies include intrusive experiments? What about the child's quality of life? What about human dignity?

5% Neandrathal?

Love the notion that it was the neanderthals doing the raping in that link kali
bit like the notion that racists used to have in the states that black men were intent on raping all white women - whereas there was a long and inglorious tradition of white men raping black women...

If your cat is going to contribute to GN, petallus I think my Grace might want to join in!

Oddly that's the bit that struck me too Jess

I think Neandrathals have had a bad press

Definitely kali

I cannot see that ever being allowed either.

Did anyone see the TV series some (probably many) ears ago? Was it called Gor? Where a scientist himself impregnated a female Gorilla? and raised the resuting offspring?

Sounds like a huge load of nothing to me.

science fiction really.
We'll believe it when an elephant gives birth to a mammoth. And that is much more likely as there are some deep frozen mammoths in the permafrost so much better source of DNA than a few old skulls.

Hmm! Do not think he is 'sick' more likely a driven and single minded scientist!

However I would think that the chances of it happening are not that big.

I am not convinced that a Neanderthal born into the 21Century would be able to demonstrate different ways of thinking to help current humans

‘When the time comes to deal with an epidemic or getting off the planet, it’s conceivable that their way of thinking could be beneficial.'

This person would not be brought up in the way/environment of a Neanderthal child and though the Nature / Nurture debate is far from decided I think there would be considerable influence on thought processes by the people with whom the child/young adult grew up with so how would anyone know what was neanderthal thinking and what was nurtured?

Interesting though!

It would be a bloody awful thing to do to the experimental child wouldn't it?

Appalling but it would be interesting!

Oh my word I thought this was a joke