Woolly Mammoth Clone

Researchers in Japan are working on a project to clone a woolly mammoth. Woolly mammoths have been extinct for a very long time; it is believed that they went extinct during the last Ice Age. The goal of this project is to resurrect a woolly mammoth by extracting tissue from a preserved carcass of a woolly mammoth and inserting the mammoth cells’ nuclei into an emptied elephant egg. It is hoped that the elephant will then give birth to a woolly mammoth clone. This project is expected to be completed within five to six years. Researchers hope that this will allow them to study the woolly mammoth species and to learn new things about the species’ ecology and genes. They believe that this will help them to hypothesize about how and why the mammoth went extinct around 65 million years ago.

This article seemed interesting to me because it raises a lot of ethical issues. Is it ethically justifiable to resurrect a species that naturally went extinct so very long ago? Are there any foreseeable adverse consequences to this undertaking? There are so many intriguing issues and questions that arise from this research project, but I am excited to see how well their plan actually works out.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110117/wl_asia_afp/japansciencemammoth_20110117104445

Abigail Hueske

VTPP 435-501