| curl-6 said: When you hear that a species is endangered, it's usually in the context that it should be saved before it's lost forever. But what if the species in question is the Polio virus, or the Guinea Worm? Both are critically endangered thanks to decades of deliberate extermination efforts by humans. Both also happen to cause debilitating disease. We've done it before; Smallpox and Rinderpest are extinct in the wild thanks to successful eradication campaigns. And why draw the line there? In 2003, biologist Olivia Judson proposed that by wiping out 30 species of mosquito through the introduction of recessive "knockout" genes, we could save at least a million human lives annually that would otherwise be lost to malaria, dengue fever, and other mosquito-borne diseases. So, do you believe that it's ethically right to intentionally eliminate a species from the earth? |
Since when is a disease or virus a species? Its easy to talk about ethics when it doesn't affect you. But if you or your family was dying of malaria, you'd sing a different tune.
All bad and harmful things to humans should go extinct.
