jahayes@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (05/28/91)
> If there were some way to perfectly record the DNA sequence of screw flies and > the technology existed to reconstruct a living specimen, then I would > not have so many qualms about eradicating them. Under the circumstances, > however, I believe that it is insufficient to argue that risk to human life > always justifies the total destruction of a "lower" life form. > > -- > Paul Callahan > callahan@cs.jhu.edu Paul: I wouldn't sweat it. Given our past lack of success at eradicating species on purpose, I think it unlikely that we'll suddenly get good at it. I would recommend a book called "The Screwworm Problem" put out by the University of Texas Press, by Dick Richardson. Good background. I also wonder about the ethical quality of the issue. Would it be unethical to swat a mosquito? A hundred mosquitos? A billion? Most of a species? All of it? At what point are our actions unethical, and why not before that point? Finally, I very much doubt that screwworm flies, and the rest of the family to which they belong (Sarcophagidae, I think, just off the top of my head. Anybody want to correct that?) are a recent evolutionary event. There are more species of insects than all other animal groups combined; it's hard for me to believe that any resource usable by insects was just recently colonized. I suspect that the flies used to attack native meso- and macro-mammals, like deer. Ta, all, Josh Hayes, Zoology, Miami of Ohio jahayes@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu