Download De-Extinction Paper

DE-EXTINCTION
By: Nick Jeppsen
How to Bring Back Extinct Animals
To revive an extinct animal scientists would need to recover a sizeable chunk of said
animals DNA. The brilliant thing of it all is that we don’t need all of the extinct animals DNA.
The reason that we don’t need it all is because we can find modern animals that shared enough
DNA with the extinct animal that they can be used as a suitable host. This method popularly
known as “cloning” although the process would reconstruct the DNA not duplicate it. That’s
why you don’t hear talk of bringing pre-historic species, like dinosaurs, back. Because it is
virtually impossible due to the fact that it would be extremely difficult to recover any genetic
information due to the fossilization process.
Another way to bring back extinct species is to try and “de-breed” said species. For
example you could breed selective groups of wolf to encourage primitive traits rather than
suppress them.
Pros

They would help us understand them more.
Seeing the animal alive again and setting it in its natural habitat where we could study its
behavior would answer questions that we would have no other way of answering.

They can help us protect species that are close to extinction
Threatened or damaged eco systems could be restored with the help of some of these extinct
species. It may also drive people to make more of an effort to preserve the ecosystem. Because
after all who wants to make a species go extinct a second time.

Technological advancement
This would be a huge step in genetic engineering. The more we understand about genetic
engineering the better.
Cons

Is it moral?
Some people would argue that we would be playing God. There is a reason that a species went
extinct and it would be immoral to bring said species back.

Environment
We would be putting these animals into an environment that they are not adapted too. The world
as we know it now is completely different from the one they lived in.

Animal welfare
We would be using these species for our own selfish purposes. We would be using them to either
learn about genetic engineering at a deeper level or help maintain the ecosystem we are
destroying. There is also the possibility that we would bring a species back just because we want
to see if it can be done.

Health
These species may be able to develop or carry diseases that could potentially be fatal to humans.
Opinion
Before doing the research for this paper I thought I knew what side I stood on when it
came to de-extinction but now I am on the fence. Both sides have very valid points. I believe that
if we were to use it responsibly we could learn a lot and really benefit from it. But I can also see
us taking an irresponsible path where these species that we have created end up in zoos because
it would be “cool” for the general public to see them.
Works Cited
"5 Reasons to Bring Back Extinct Animals (And 5 Reasons Not To) - D-brief." Dbrief. 2013.
Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2013/04/04/5-reasons-to-bringback-extinct-animals-and-5-reasons-not-to/#.Vvyjb4-cHug>.
"7 Main Pros and Cons of Cloning Extinct Animals." Green Garage. 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
<http://greengarageblog.org/7-main-pros-and-cons-of-cloning-extinct-animals>.
"De-Extinction - Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life - Pictures, News, TEDx Conference."
National Geographic. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/deextinction/>.