Reply #16: Serious answer? No, because we aren't evolved enough [View All]

[Lyric]

to act like civilized, compassionate beings and treat it with the respect it would deserve. Its mental capacity would be akin to a mentally-deficient "regular" human, but it wouldn't be given the same rights that mentally disabled people are entitled to.

For example, we do not breed disabled people in order to do experiments on them. That is EXACTLY what this would be. And it would be horrifically wrong. What if the Neanderthal turns out to be a lot smarter than we expected, for example? Do we set it free and give it rights? It won't have a family, or a support system, or any way to take care of itself. Do we keep it locked up in captivity until it dies? I think it might be far too "human" for something like that to be ethical.

Maybe in a few hundred years, when we aren't quite so barbaric ourselves, it could happen. But not until then.