Ethical concerns around this type of cloning to recreate extinct animals include the need for social animals to have a social group that will accept them. Without that, they will be alone and very possibly miserable in life. We often keep zoo animals because they are not viable in the wild, being rescued from dead parents or found alone, or being born in captivity without training to survive in the wild.
Should we recreate these species we must consider if they can survive life free of captivity or isolation. Creating an embryo of a mammoth to implant in a elephant is using both in unnatural ways with no understanding of
the impact or health of either. If we choose to create a group of mammoths how many with variant DNA would be self- sustainable, already a problem where few individuals or a few isolated groups live? If the animals can't reproduce do we continue to create them using elephants, how will that affect elephant populations?
The recent recreation of mammoth in the form of a potentially deadly meatball (fear of allergy to theoretical unique proteins) presents a question of for what purpose? If folks want to create a mammoth to butcher it even I will become a militant vegetarian.
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