Guidelines for success
Beth Shapiro, author of How to Clone a Mammoth, discusses the criteria needed for a successful species resurrection.
1) "Well-preserved specimens must exist"
The most logical criterion - there must be usable specimens with the right amount of preservation for it to be suitable to the specific method conducted in order to successfully execute de-extinction.
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2) "Create a species that can live independently"
If the method of interspecies surrogates are used, which is rarely successful, it must be successful many times so that the revived species can thrive as a population and not as one lone organism by itself. The organism must also be "capable of developing into an adult". Additionally, what social group will the organism fit into if it is raised by itself? For example, how would an elephant mother teach the mammoth baby to be a mammoth?
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3) "Somewhere for this species to live"
The ecosystems present today are not the same as they were before - it is constantly changing. Thus, there may "no longer be a viable habitat" for the extinct species. Furthermore, what if it alters the current ecosystem negatively in unpredictable ways? If there is no habitat for the resurrected species, it should not be revived.
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4) "Whatever led to the initial extinction has to be identified and corrected"
If the cause if the species' extinction is not identified, it may become extinct once again. To prevent this, knowing why a species went extinct and finding a solution to prevent it would be beneficial. However, many species that disappeared within the last few centuries were "victims of the expansion of human populations or the invasion of their habitat by species whose populations expanded with ours". Ultimately, the reintroduced species may become extinct again.
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5) "De-extinction should not affect other species"
De-extinction should not be proceeded if it harms and threatens other species in the ecosystem. It would eventually cause a domino effect and threaten the whole ecosystem in unpredictable ways.
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6) "There must be a compelling reason to bring a species back to life"
This is "the most important and most ambiguous standard". Many that support de-extinction support it for different reasons, and there must be a strong enough reason for de-extinction to be executed.