Mendel's Ark: Conservation Genetics and the Future of Extinction

Amid the current biodiversity crisis and the ongoing threat of mass extinctions caused by modern anthropogenic factors such as industrialization, poaching and habitat destruction, conservation genetics provides tools (such as somatic‐cell nuclear transfer) that could help to ensure the survival of species and ecosystems. Yet as conservation genetics shifts from the laboratory and scientific communities into mainstream awareness, numerous political questions arise. For example, which species should be priorities for research and restoration via expensive biotechnology interventions? Does the increasing availability of biotechnological tools alter our perception of the biodiversity crisis and the natural world? Why are some stakeholders so opposed to using advanced biotechnology in conservation? Finally, and perhaps most controversially, what are the realistic outer limits of such tools with respect to the idea of “conquering extinction”?