Hastings Center News

Should We Ever Genetically Edit a Species Out of Existence?

What circumstances might justify causing the deliberate extinction of a species? That’s the subject of a Policy Forum published in Science by Hastings Center research director Gregory Kaebnick and co-authors. And the question is not hypothetical—at least one species is a preliminary candidate for full extinction. The authors discuss three cases in which genome modification might be used to eradicate species and argue that “deliberate full extinction might occasionally be acceptable, but only extremely rarely.”

In an accompanying essay in Hastings Bioethics Forum, Kaebnick and co-authors James Collins,  Athmeya Jayaram, and Rebecca Tiernan explore the implications of deliberate extinction in light of the recent “de-extinction” of the dire wolf and challenges to the Endangered Species Act by the Trump administration.