Cloning is the tool that geneticists use as a last resort, but scientist in Brazil wants to change that. They are petitioning to try and cloning eight animals that are close to extinction. Even though none of the animals are critically endangered Brazil's agricultural research agency wants to get a lead.
Embrapa, the research agency hopes to begin cloning the maned wolf in the next month. They have already begun collecting tissue samples from all the animals. They have collected somatic cells and spermatozoa from eight threatened species. Some of these animals are classified as near threatened on the list of endangered species. There are plans to put the cloned animals back into the wild even though, these animals have little or no genetic value and could potentially weaken wild populations if they are mixed.
I honestly have mixed feelings about this. Doesn't this shorten the life span of the animal because they are taking cells off animals that are older? DNA loses some of its length each time it is replicated. I am fully agreeing with the conservation of endangered species but is this really the right way of going about it?
Cloning is a very great tool that could reguvanate other endangered species, but there's reasons why the endangered species are becoming depleted and if we spend money on these animals whats to say all that money would go to waste because they will just become endangered again.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting topic, not just because of being able to genetically clone an organism but because of the ethical questions that arise from it. From an evolutionary standpoint, if an organism is unfit to survive the world that has been created, than should we clone it and ensure its survival? This is a really interesting debate, and I'm sure we will hear more about in the upcoming years.
ReplyDeleteI am sure this is a hot topic for scientists as for its ethical concerns. While keeping a species alive, it also is going against nature. Natural selection occurs everyday, but sometimes it is people who are putting these animals on the verge of extinction because we just "need" to have jackets and pocketbooks with their skin or fur in it. This may not be a bad idea after all.
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