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Is it allowed according to halacha to bring back extinct species? The technology is on its way, and i have seen some discussion in non-Jewish contexts about the ethics of it, and how we might be "playing God".

On the one hand, God originally created these animals. If they went extinct, especially caused by humans, shouldn't we try and fix it? On the other hand, Hashem made the animals go extinct, and we shouldn't mess with that. But back to the first side, if He's giving us the technology, maybe we should use it.

Is this discussed by any contemporary sources, in either a halachic or hashkafic context? If so, is it allowed or not? And, if it is allowed, does it apply only to animals whose extinction was caused by humans (such as a dodo bird), or also things we had nothing to do with (wooly mammoths, dinosaurs)?

Scimonster
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    "we might be 'playing God'" What's wrong with that? – Double AA Mar 08 '15 at 21:34
  • That that isn't our position in Creation. – Scimonster Mar 08 '15 at 21:39
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    Jewrasic park. Nice. – user6591 Mar 08 '15 at 21:49
  • @Cnsersmoit How could you know that? – Double AA Mar 08 '15 at 21:51
  • @DoubleAA That is one of the commonly stated reasons for opposition. I'll try and find you a source. – Scimonster Mar 08 '15 at 21:52
  • Stated or not, I don't understand it. Non-Jewish terminology is not on topic here as you know. – Double AA Mar 08 '15 at 21:58
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    I don't see how bringing back an extinct species using DNA is anything like what God does, which is creating things ex-nihilo. This seems far more analogous to building something given some raw materials. – Daniel Mar 08 '15 at 23:01
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    Actually, it's not analogous. It is just building something given some raw materials. – Daniel Mar 08 '15 at 23:03
  • Actually, according to almost all of the medieval Jewish commentators (who were basing themselves off of Aristotelian and other sources) a species cannot go extinct or come into being. So... You certainly won't find this discussed in the classic sources. But I don't understand why you'd think it's prohibited (other than for being a waste of resources, or for ecological reasons) – הנער הזה Mar 09 '15 at 01:20
  • Related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/50293 – msh210 Mar 09 '15 at 04:14
  • I think first you have to discuss how they plan on doing that. I'm no scientist but there are different ways. I think the most common is cloning. They find some live DNA from a wooly mamoth They then take an egg from in the mother modern elephant in an early state remove some genetic material and put in the wooly mammoths. For what purpose is all this? Would it justify the tsar balei Chaim involved? – mroll May 01 '15 at 19:10

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