Cloning of Extinct Huia Bird Approved in New Zealand
7/20/99
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Title: Cloning of extinct Huia bird approved
Source: Environmental News Network
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: July 20, 1999
A European fashion craze for the large, white-tipped black tail
feathers of the Huia led to the New Zealand bird being declared
extinct in the 1920s.
(ENN) -- It may sound like science fiction, but scientists and
ethicists meeting in New Zealand earlier this month have determined
that efforts to revive the extinct Huia bird through cloning should
begin immediately.
Professor of molecular biology Diana Hill, who has also investigated
the cloning of another extinct bird, the Moa, called the project
"flagship research" and "exciting leading-edge science of
international significance."
Hill cautioned that technical hurdles mean a cloned Huia is probably
some years away.
The project began when students at the Hastings Boys High School in
New Zealand wondered if their school emblem, the extinct Huia, could
be revived. The students researched the idea, invited speakers and
organized a conference. Students, representatives from the Maori,
scientists and moral experts met July 9-10 to discuss the technical
feasibility and moral permissibility of reviving the Huia.
Now the schoolboy fantasy, inspired by Dr. Michael Crichton's best-
selling novel, Jurassic Park, is leading to cutting edge scientific
research.
The Huia is a bird of great cultural importance to the Maori, New
Zealand's indigenous population. They prized the bird for its large,
white-tipped, black tail feathers. Due to a European fashion craze,
the bird was declared extinct in the 1920s.
The Reverend Dr. Norman Ford, Catholic priest and director of the
Caroline Chisholm Centre for Health Ethics in Melbourne, Australia,
said that the benefits to Maori and to New Zealand of cloning the Huia
meant the research was morally acceptable. Other arguments that
supported the morality of cloning the Huia included a restorative
justice argument - that the Huia suffered loss through the actions of
man and that man should now make good that loss. Cloning supporters
also say that it shows that technology can fix the mistakes man has
made in the past.
Those who opposed the cloning project had a range of objections -
that man should not play god, that the money could be spent better
elsewhere, and that the Huia, due to its overspecialized nature was
not meant to survive. They say a cloned Huia would not be real and
might not be able to survive in the wild. Cloning supporters carried
the day.
"The next step in the cloning process involves searching for cells in
the bones and tendons of preserved specimens," says Dr. Rhys Michael
Cullen, a New Zealand physician and secretary of the academic
committee of cyberuni.org, a conference sponsor. "If none are found,
then we will try to extract DNA from those specimens and use 'Jurassic
Park technology'."
If none of these cells can be found, the nucleus of a cell removed
from a taxidermic specimen of a Huia could be fused with the ovum of
another bird to start the regeneration. In Scotland, scientists used a
cell implant to clone Dolly, the sheep. Alternatively, scientists
could attempt to create a clone from a genetic template of the Huia.
This was the process to revive dinosaurs from extinction as described
in the novel, Jurassic Park.
The cloning project will be financed in part by cyberuni.org, inc., a
California corporation and Internet start-up, based in San Francisco.