I'm sure you have heard about or even read the article in National Geographic about bringing extinct species back from the grave. Most of the animals they intend on bringing back are birds, but they also want to see if they can bring back a mastodon, a woolly mammoth and a saber tooth tiger. I question if we should actually bring these amazing animals back to the world?
Worry number 1: These animals died out within the last couple of thousand of years (they can't bring back dinosaurs due to their DNA being un-recoverable). Some were hunted to extinction while others died due to environmental changes. If we choose to bring these animals back are we dooming them to death once again? Think about it. We are not 100% sure as to why certain species of animals died out. They think the mastodon can come back because the plant life in the arctic tundra is coming back to what it is believed it was like those hundreds of years ago. But, scientists cannot be sure. By breading these animals we could end up poisoning them with current plants and animal life. Morally thinking, I advise against any attempt to release these animals into the wild unless it is provable that they can live and flourish outside a lab.
Worry number 2: Another issue is what happens to the animals that took there place in the wild once they became extinct. The animal kingdom is full of niche animal species. Each one thriving in that role until natural selection occurs once again, such as favoring shorter winged birds over longer winged birds in an urban environment (it allows them to better avoid being hit bay cars). We may regain one species of animal, just to kill off another species through competition with the animal brought back. This is another issue that will have to be taken into account.
The process: What they intend to bring back are not exactly the original animal that went extinct. What is being brought into the world is a representation of the animal that went extinct. To bring such creatures back, scientist map the genome of the extinct animal from DNA that has been recovered. From there, they fill in the missing pieces of DNA with what they believe to be accurate representations of the original animal. From this point the same process used in cloning takes place. They manipulate the eggs of an animal whose DNA is as close a match as possible (Elephant to mastodon for example) and substitute the altered DNA parts with the originals. The result is a hybrid of the original animal and the extinct species. At this point the process is repeated until the animal looks like the extinct species they wanted to bring back. Problem, the animal is not necessarily the extinct species; they are just making another animal look like it. In addition, you cannot study it as the extinct species as we are not 100% sure how the original behaves, thus you are just studying a man made representation and the ways they adapt to the environment they are in (assuming they live).
Conclusion: I know I sound critical, and that is because I am. There is no way that I don't think it is cool that these new versions of extinct species could walk the earth, but morally I'm troubled. Should we bring such animals back, just to see them die, or cause other animals to die as well? Conservation efforts don't exactly work out as planned. Some animals died out anyway, while others became too successful and have to be hunted regularly to avoid over population. In this instance, I would just use this science to test if it is possible to bring animals back. I would not release them out in the wild, but rather seek to design animals that could exist as domesticated versions in zoos. We could create more versions of life stock for leather, and meat to help end world hunger. Or we can even use the technology to aid in our government's mission to colonize Mars (you know they want the credit) by creating animals that can survive the harsh conditions. There will be many issues with this technology and the creations it produces as the animals must survive here on earth, exposed to many of the same diseases that may have wiped out there originals. Can we play God? Yes, but it is not exactly the most advisable thing to do (think the movie Planet of the Apes and the lesson it was trying to impart).
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