CNN: Cloning of extinct Huia bird approved

[Betty Cunningham <bettyc@flyinggoat.com>]

http://customnews.cnn.com/cnews/pna.show_story?p_art_id=4102567&p_section_name=&p_art_type=652817&p_subcat=other+animals&p_category=animals

Cloning of extinct Huia bird approved 
July 20, 1999     Web posted at: 3:15 p.m. EDT (1915 GMT)

(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.

-- 
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http://www.flyinggoat.com
(Society of Vertebrate Paleontology member)
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