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Second Chance spread

Second Chance

CLONING COULD BE the Holy Grail of conservation or the ultimate folly. Either way, the fact is, cloning works.

By Cynthia Mills
October-December 2006 (Vol. 7, No. 4)

Could be guilt, or simply loss, but people hope with mythic zeal for the resurrection of extinct or nearly extinct species. Regard the passion aroused by recent sightings (and soundings) of the ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas swamps. Check out the websites showing a blurry video of what may be a thylacine (also known as a Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf), footage reminiscent of the short take of Bigfoot. If only—the most painful phrase in any language—if only we had a second chance to save the creatures we’ve destroyed. Our feelings are not simple—not intellectual nor wholly emotional, but some amalgam of both. In many ways, we are the same people who once promoted the intentional elimination of these and other species.

So is cloning a good idea—redemption, perhaps? It could be the Holy Grail of conservation or it could be the ultimate folly. Opinions divide along familiar lines—the technophile versus the technophobe: one



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