![]() In this article I use the example of an extinct New Zealandwattlebird, the huia, to argue that there are compelling reasons to resurrect certain species if itcan be done. Shapiro’s denial that genuine species de-extinction is possible is based onher assumption that the resurrected organisms would need to be perfectly indistinguishablefrom the creatures that died out. The de-extinct ‘mammoths’ she speaks of are merely ecological proxies formammoths-elephants re-engineered for cold-tolerance by the addition to their genomes of afew mammoth genes. But infact Shapiro both denies this is possible, and denies there would be good reason to do it even ifit were possible. The title of Beth Shapiro’s ‘How to Clone a Mammoth’ contains an implicature: it suggests thatit is indeed possible to clone a mammoth, to bring extinct species back from the dead. ![]()
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