"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't think to stop to think if they should" -Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park
Although de-extinction may be beneficial to the current world, many scientists argue that it would impact the environment in a harmful and negative way. It may disrupt the harmony that ecosystems have, or even introduce new pathogens to current species. Whatever is the case, there must be a lot of consideration before executing de-extinction.
issues
political issues
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De-extinction may change the priorities of other fields. Instead of funding for conservation of endangered species or focusing on medical researches, it may be more focused on de-extinction.
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It would reduce the amount of effort in the Endangered Species Act since more is focused towards executing de-extinction.
environmental issues
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The resurrected species could be a carrier for a fatal disease or an unintentional threat to current species or ecosystems.
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It could potentially be invasive to other species or ecosystems, disrupting the balance of the food chain.
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If the resurrected individuals are clones, current disease may even wipe out the whole population because of identical DNA.
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Where should the resurrected species be placed if they are re-introduced to our world? It is unsure where exactly these species would live.
economic issues
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Millions of money would be used to bring back a few species, but it does not compensate for the millions of lives lost due to human activity.
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The cost of failure could be more than successful trials. Extracting the DNA is easy, but for the fetus to develop in a surrogate or artificially is difficult.
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It can shift the focus of money on the technology of de-extinction rather than focusing on conserving current endangered species.
other issues
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It is unethical to animal welfare. Animals, like us, are individuals with feelings and should not suffer in human's experiments with sciences.
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De-extinction is not animal conservation. If one of the main purposes is to bring back the dead, science should focus on helping endangered species. It ignores the current mass-extinction problem to many species.
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If de-extinction is successful, scientists may take it too far and resurrect other species that can potentially be dangerous to the environment due to unknown factors.
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There is no clear evidence that even if the extinct animals are brought back, they would act the same as they used to.