去滅絕：一個過早的主張

De-Extinction: A Premature Claim

將滅絕物種重新帶回這個世界，是復活生物學企圖執行的工作。而隨著近年來基因編輯技術的快速發展，去滅絕的研究也逐步從科幻層級提昇到了所謂的科學事實層級。然而，這樣的科學實踐，到底呈現了什麼？是科學家真的讓已滅絕物種復活了？還是聲稱去滅絕已成功，只是一個過早（premature）的主張？本文企圖從「滅絕」與「去滅絕」的定義，以及「物種成員」與「物種本身」所涉及的概念區分著手，論證聲稱去滅絕已成功，是一個仍有待商確的主張。而此論證的核心觀點為，斷定科學家對已滅絕物種的複製（clone）是否屬於或者不屬於已滅絕物種，並無法決定科學家是否真的讓已滅絕物種復活。

"Resurrection biology aims to bring extinct species back to life. With the rapid development of gene-editing technologies in recent years, the idea of de-extinction has gradually been recognized as a po-tentially realizable scientific goal rather than residing in the realm of science fiction. What might de-extinction mean? Will it entail scientists actually reviving extinct species, or is the notion as yet premature? This paper argues that de-extinction is as yet not possible given the defini-tions of extinction and de-extinction, and the distinction between spe-cies taxa and species categories. The central argument is that the judg-ment of whether or not a cloned organism properly belongs to an ex-tinct species will not be the determining factor in whether or not scien-tists successfully revive extinct species."