Should We Clone Her?

The baby girl arrived on December 10, 2020, measuring about the size of a pinkie finger. Elizabeth Ann was picture-perfect—from her adorable speck of a nose to her wiggly tail.

Photos of the newborn splashed across social media. “Welcome to the world!” cooed commenters. “She is so cute!” Others had a different take: “Messing with mother nature [is] not good,” wrote one person.

Why the controversy?

Elizabeth Ann is a black-footed ferret (BFF)—a species that is endangered. She is also a clone. She is a copy of another BFF that died more than 30 years ago.

Sounds amazing, right? It’s not so simple. There are big questions about cloning animals—about whether it’s right and whether it makes sense. Some are asking: Just because we can clone, does that mean we should ?

Over Earth’s long history, many species have come and gone. But today, species are disappearing at an alarming rate. According to the United Nations, about 1 million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction.

Many species, like BFFs, are in trouble because of human activity. Habitats are shrinking to make way for farms and neighborhoods. Climate change and pollution are putting many creatures in danger.

That’s a problem for all of us. When a species goes extinct, it means a loss of what is called biodiversity. Having a wide variety of animals, plants, and other organisms keeps the planet (and us !) healthy.

Could cloning help? Some scientists say it could play a key role.

“Conservation needs more tools in the toolbox,” says Ryan Phelan from Revive & Restore, the group that helped clone Elizabeth Ann. “That’s our whole motivation. Cloning is just one of the tools.”

BFFs once lived all across the Great Plains. They lost their habitat as the grasslands where they lived were turned into farmland. For many years, they were thought to be extinct. Then, in 1981, a small group was found in Wyoming. Some of those BFFs became part of a breeding program to help save the species.

Today there are about 550 BFFs. But they have a problem. Except for Elizabeth Ann, they all descended from the same seven ferrets. As a result, they have significant health problems.

Think about it this way. Because there were only seven BFFs, the gene pool is really small. The gene pool is all the traits that can be passed from parents to offspring. Some of those traits help an animal survive—like precise vision and immunity to disease. Other traits make it harder to survive—like poor vision and less immunity to disease.

When you have such a small number of animals, those not-so-healthy traits can get passed on. And that can prevent an endangered species from recovering.

This is where cloning comes in. Wild BFFs suffer from many health problems. But Elizabeth Ann is not related to them. Her children and grandchildren could bring healthy traits back to the wild population.

And that would give BFFs a better chance at recovery.

Cloning endangered species is certainly exciting. It’s also controversial. Why? First, cloning projects can take many years and cost millions of dollars—and they are not guaranteed to work. What’s more, cloned animals are also prone to birth defects and can die within days or even minutes of being born.

Then there are ethical concerns. Is it right to interfere with nature—to “make” animals in a lab? On the other hand, shouldn’t we use our technology to help save species that are in danger because of us?

Cloning itself also does not address many of the problems that cause animals to become endangered in the first place—problems like habitat loss. Will the option of cloning reduce our sense of urgency to solve those problems?

Then again, cloning could buy time for endangered species like BFFs. Maybe future generations of BFFs will live in a world where their habitat has been restored.

That’s a lot of pressure to put on Elizabeth Ann. But she doesn’t seem bothered. She is healthy and thriving.

In fact, right now, she’s probably curled up somewhere, enjoying a snooze.

^{This article was originally published in the December 2021 / January 2022 issue.}