Human de-extinction: If we disappear from the planet, should our species be revived?

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It’s a tough call, but maybe not, according to a panel of five experts who debated “de-extinction” during the annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City on Wednesday (March 29).

Were another intelligent life to de-extinctify humans, would they put us in a zoo-like environment? For a sentient being, that would be “extremely frightening and scary,” said panelist Greg Kaebnick, a research scholar at the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institute in Garrison, New York.

Then, to further muddy the waters, Kaebnick asked, “Do we deserve to be brought back?”

Yes, we do, said panelist George Church, a professor at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is working on reviving bits and pieces of the woolly mammoth. But then again, Church, a geneticist, molecular engineer and chemist, has often opined that the science of de-extinction is already here or within reach, and should be pursued.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Were Humans to Go Extinct, Should the Species Be Revived?

For more background on the Genetic Literacy Project, read GLP on Wikipedia.

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