The Role of Ethics in Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life

An article by National Geographic magazine Carl Zimmer published in April 2013 discusses the possibility of cloning and resurrection of species that have been extinct in the past 10,000 years in modern science (445) Throughout the article, We use the signature, spirit, and sorrow of rhetorical devices to assert to the audience that humans are obliged to restore directly extinct species by human influence.

Stanford University researchers have three main ways to regain extinct species: inbreeding, genetic engineering, and cloning. Through inbreeding, scientists use species that are genetically similar to extinct species and selectively breed it based on the characteristics of extinct species. Genetic engineering relies on existing DNA samples of extinct species; scientists can activate them by targeting and replacing specific genomic sequences of closely related species. Finally, if a living cell nucleus from an extinct species is available, it can be cloned using a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer - the way in which the extinct species tested failed

Extinction, also known as resurgence biology, restores the process of extinction or extinct species. Once considered an illusion, advances in breeding, genetic and reproductive cloning techniques have increased the likelihood that extinct species will return to life. The key to these advances was the technology developed in the 1990s called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and was used for the production of the first mammalian clone, Dolly the Sheep (born 1996, died in 2003) .

Sequable DNA can be recovered from museum samples and some extinct species fossils. This discovery of the 1980's led to the idea that it is possible to revive several extinct animals. The advent of cheaper shotgun sequencing of the Life genome means that the highly dispersed state of "old DNA" is not an obstacle for rebuilding the long-lived biological genome. At the same time, the rise of "synthetic biology" since 2000 has provided very accurate genome editing tools.

If you have the opportunity to get back the extinct animals and let them walk around the earth again, what about you? Recently scientists have found a way to restore extinct species by creating clones of extinct species and returning them to life. This is a great breakthrough in science and we can change our world forever. But how far is that far? We need to consider our choice and ethics to see how well we should achieve this goal, especially when you have the ability to regain animals that are no longer walking around the earth.