That would infer that human are intelligent.  Has that been established yet. 

"Ok, Mr Intelligent Neanderthal. We just cloned you and you know what? That's right? Direct to the disect table! Don't worry, the other clones may take some more time to die but will follow shortly and if they don't, don't hold your breath for them getting the proper treatment and respect that an intelligent lifeform should get."

Why cannot we harvest babies to experiment? They only have the rights we give them (as rights are nothing but an artificial construct that changes with times and societies).

There are many other hominid species which have gone extinct that would be useful. For instance, I know there was a hominid species in Africa which had a much better bone structure than we do. I can understand using the genetic makeup of these species to our advantage, but cloning seems like it's unnecessary at this point. Also, there are other species we could concentrate on for our benefit. For example, most fish create their own electromagnetic field and rely on that more than sight. That would be cool. Moths only have 2 sensory receptors for sound, but they can hear something a mile away. Erenna can produce red luminescence. The possibilities are endless.

With that said, if we would really like to improve our species, we should put half of the worlds human population on a spaceship and send it into space, because according to a standard ecological model, our species is overpopulated and we should be extinct by now. Everything is perfectly balanced if humans aren't considered. Rather than cloning things, we should concentrate on either limiting reproduction rates, or finding another planet to live on because our population size is eventually going to kill us. (I realize that limiting human procreation isn't going to happen, but if you have a better idea, let the scientific community know.)

And they were just walking around doing dinosaur stuff.

I can't wait to see what nature does to us over the oil spill in the gulf.

Thats why said Neanderthal better hope its us that creates him and not N. Korea. We at least could insure that he's legally considered a human being. Many nations don't even consider HUMANS human beings, required to be afforded human rights. I'm still worried about the first sentient computer program. Are we going to just switch it off whenever we feel like it? Make it pay for processor cycles? Enslave it?

Somebody WILL do these things. Eventually. Best hope its somebody at least semi-equipped to recognize that there are significant ethical consideration.

"Why cannot we harvest babies to experiment?"

You know why. The consequences of making that decision would lead to a political and economic backlash the likes of which have never been seen - well, except in Nazi Germany. And I'd say thats probably the ONLY reason. Dictatorships that aren't accountable to the people don't have that problem.

We definately have the technology to do it right now.  This minute.  It's just... expensive.  We wouldn't use the typical nuclear transfer method, primarily because we only have fossil DNA of Neanderthals at the moment.  We don't know how to organize them into chromosomes.  However, the idea is that you alter human DNA using Multiplex Automated Genome Engineering (MAGE) so that it resembles Neanderthal DNA.  Then, you place that DNA into a blastocyst and carry the now fertile egg to term inside of a human surrogate.  What do you get?  A neanderthal baby that is the identical twin of a Neanderthal that died 40,000 years ago (with human mitochondrial DNA.) 

The trick right now is our (MAGE) techniques, which require some improvement before we can cost effectively clone a Neanderthal. 

Also, there is really no need to "put a Neanderthal on the dissection table."  The really important stuff can be done with live cell cultures and Neuroimaging techniques that are harmless.  Basically, your Neanderthal would end up living a cloustered life on a University campus with limited automony--- kind of like a bubble boy.  After all, a Neanderthal from 40,000 years ago would have no evolved ability to resist modern viruses but would still be suceptible. 

If you are wondering how I know all this stuff, I'm writing a novel about a cloned Neanderthal called Sapiens.  I've interviewed a whole host of the leading geneticists and biological anthropologists involved in the study of recent human cousins and origins.

I like to drop the OP question wherever I go, because it's important for me to understand the general public's perception and knowledge on matters of anthropology and ethics so that I may properly depict it in my book.  Thanks for all of the responses and... continue

RedNeck, the religious perspective is actually very interesting to me.  But God is all powerful and all knowing.  Can't he simply notice that humans cloned a Neanderthal and swoop in to grant it a soul?  Likewise, if we cloned a human, why can't God simply bestow a soul upon the cloned individual. 

Identical twins are clones (literally, clones), but we do not suppose that the individual coming out of the birthing cannal first is the only one with a soul.  You do understand that a clone is merely an identical twin of the cloned individual, but born at a later date, right?  A clone must be carried by a woman like a normal child, born like a normal child, and mature like a normal child.  Don't tell anyone (including the clone) that they are a clone and there is no way anyone would be able to tell that they are a clone.  Does this change your perspective?

As for Wintersong, I would advocate harvesting babies under certain circumstances (I'm not sure what you mean by "baby" though.  The question would, of course, be how the harvesting was done, what benefits would it yield, and whether our society was mature enough to handle it (which it isn't.)  The matter of harvesting babies in most conventional ways would probably involve exploiting less fortunate demographics, which directly conflicts with a civil society that values justice and human rights.  If we could find another way and the benefits were collosal?  Sure.

They already have, he's the CEO of BP.

We broke the ocean. Do we really wanna see how badly we can f**k up cloning?

I'm all for spending tons of money on geeky but otherwise pointless stuff.

Humankind will never be ready if all that is done is waiting. Cloning a Neanderthal would give perspective to the situation, and maybe even lead to the Sentient Revolution, as it were. The sooner, the better.

OK, no waiting. Just say No. 

There would be no situation to perceive if we didn't create them....And what a damn waste of perfectly good man-made tax money!!!

We don't need it anywhere else anyways.