Bioengineering, otherwise understood as ‘creating life’, seems like good thing, right? We could bring back extinct species such as the fan favorite Velociraptors, and, combined with terraforming, we could perhaps reverse the effects of climate change.
This sounds like something out of a science fiction movie or game, isn’t? But wrong! Humans have been able to bio-engineer life with varying degrees of success over the past few years. The first scientific breakthrough was the cloning of a sheep, fondly called Dolly, cloned in 1996 by associates of the Roslin Institute of Scotland.
Dolly was the first ever mammal to be cloned, and this was back in the 90’s! If we would make such advancements 40 years ago, at this pace, soon dinosaurs could be a reality in the 21st century!
In 2000, a Spanish goat named Celia, who happened to be the last of her species (Bucardo or Pyrenean Ibex) was a goat that went extinct twice! Yes! Now, you must be wondering how could even possibly happen?
Well, one day, Celia was tragically crushed by a tree while she was out exploring local mountains. However, scientists had already collected DNA samples from her about a year before she died. These were then cryogenically persevered. In 2003, in a last-ditch effort to revive the Bucardo goat species, a group of Spanish and French followed the same procedure used to clone Dolly the sheep.
They did this by taking nuclei from her cells and injecting it into goat eggs stripped of their own genetic material. Then, they implanted these eggs into a hybrid of domestic goats and the Spanish ibex.
These eggs did eventually incubate into a lamb that was the clone of Celia. But sadly, it died 10 minutes after it was birthed due to severely deformed lungs. Incidentally, Dolly had the same problem but she was euthanized in 2003 before things got severe.
This perhaps proves that there is a long way to go before we can fully manipulate life. However, this also raises a morality question¬—how ethical would it be to create a living organism.
Most people would say no, playing God is unethical. This powerful technology could be used to bring back dinosaurs like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, that can theoretically be used as war animals.
But, one could argue that bringing back an extinct species would be the right thing to do. It would also improve our scientific understanding of climate change through ancient animals, such as crocodiles. They have undergone a slower evolution as their efficient body plan doesn’t require significant adaptation unless drastic environmental changes occur.
Thus as we think about the pros of cloning, the cons are as critical.
Student of Class 12, Doon School, Dehradun, Uttarakhand