Should We Bring Extinct Animals Back to Life?
Wouldn’t it be cool (or would it?) if we could bring wooly mammoths back and have them live in Greenland, Siberia or the Canadian tundra?
Even a single herd of wooly rhinos roaming around in some secluded part of the world?
With cloning, we probably could. But should we?
When I saw these photos… when I asked myself this question… I was immediately reminded of the famous scene in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 movie, Jurassic Park…
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Gee, the lack of humility before nature that’s being displayed here, uh… staggers me.
Donald Gennaro: Well thank you, Dr. Malcolm, but I think things are a little bit different than you and I had feared…
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, I know. They’re a lot worse.
Donald Gennaro: Now, wait a second now, we haven’t even seen the park…
John Hammond: No, no, Donald, Donald, Donald… let him talk. There’s no reason… I want to hear every viewpoint, I really do.
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Don’t you see the danger, John, inherent in what you’re doing here? Genetic power is the most awesome force the planet’s ever seen, but you wield it like a kid that’s found his dad’s gun.
Donald Gennaro: It’s hardly appropriate to start hurling generalizations…
Dr. Ian Malcolm: If I may… Um, I’ll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you’re using here, it didn’t require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don’t take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now
[bangs on the table]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: you’re selling it, you wanna sell it. Well…
John Hammond: I don’t think you’re giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things which nobody’s ever done before…
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.
John Hammond: Condors. Condors are on the verge of extinction…
Dr. Ian Malcolm: [shaking his head] No…
John Hammond: If I was to create a flock of condors on this island, you wouldn’t have anything to say.
Dr. Ian Malcolm: No, hold on. This isn’t some species that was obliterated by deforestation, or the building of a dam. Dinosaurs had their shot, and nature selected them for extinction.
John Hammond: I simply don’t understand this Luddite attitude, especially from a scientist. I mean, how can we stand in the light of discovery, and not act?
Dr. Ian Malcolm: What’s so great about discovery? It’s a violent, penetrative act that scars what it explores. What you call discovery, I call the rape of the natural world.
Dr. Ellie Sattler: Well, the question is, how can you know anything about an extinct ecosystem? And therefore, how could you ever assume that you can control it? I mean, you have plants in this building that are poisonous, you picked them because they look good, but these are aggressive living things that have no idea what century they’re in, and they’ll defend themselves, violently if necessary.
John Hammond: Dr. Grant, if there’s one person here who could appreciate what I’m trying to do…
Dr. Alan Grant: The world has just changed so radically, and we’re all running to catch up. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but look… Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?
John Hammond: [laughing] I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it! You’re meant to come down here and defend me against these characters, and the only one I’ve got on my side is the blood-sucking lawyer!
Donald Gennaro: Thank you.
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