Editing Extinction (section)

===== Disease vectors =====
Biologist [[Olivia Judson]] has advocated the deliberate extinction of certain disease-carrying [[mosquito]] species. In an article in ''[[The New York Times]]'' on 25 September 2003, she advocated "specicide" of thirty mosquito species by introducing a genetic element that can insert itself into another crucial gene, to create [[recessive]] "[[Gene knockout|knockout genes]]".<ref name="Judson"/> She says that the ''[[Anopheles]]'' mosquitoes (which spread [[malaria]]) and ''[[Aedes]]'' mosquitoes (which spread [[dengue fever]], [[yellow fever]], [[elephantiasis tropica|elephantiasis]], and other diseases) represent only 30 of around 3,500 mosquito species; eradicating these would save at least one million human lives per year, at a cost of reducing the [[genetic diversity]] of the family [[Culicidae]] by only 1%. She further argues that since species become extinct "all the time" the disappearance of a few more will not destroy the [[ecosystem]]: "We're not left with a wasteland every time a species vanishes. Removing one species sometimes causes shifts in the populations of other species—but different need not mean worse." In addition, anti-malarial and [[Mosquito#Control|mosquito control programs]] offer little realistic hope to the 300&nbsp;million people in [[developing nation]]s who will be infected with acute illnesses this year. Although trials are ongoing, she writes that if they fail "we should consider the ultimate swatting".<ref name="Judson">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/25/opinion/a-bug-s-death.html |title=A Bug's Death |date=September 25, 2003 |last=Judson |first=Olivia |author-link=Olivia Judson |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=17 February 2016 |archive-date=6 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306163542/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/25/opinion/a-bug-s-death.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Biologist [[E. O. Wilson]] has advocated the eradication of several species of mosquito, including malaria vector ''[[Anopheles gambiae]]''. Wilson stated, "I'm talking about a very small number of species that have co-evolved with us and are preying on humans, so it would certainly be acceptable to remove them. I believe it's just common sense."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Paulson |first1=Steve |title=Why a famous biologist wants to eradicate killer mosquitoes |url=https://theworld.org/stories/2016-04-04/why-famous-biologist-wants-eradicate-killer-mosquitoes |work=The World from PRX |date=4 April 2016 |access-date=9 February 2022 |archive-date=9 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209131520/https://theworld.org/stories/2016-04-04/why-famous-biologist-wants-eradicate-killer-mosquitoes |url-status=live}}</ref>

There have been many campaigns – some successful – to locally eradicate [[tsetse fly|tsetse flies]] and their [[trypanosoma|trypanosome]]s in areas, countries, and islands of Africa (including [[Príncipe]]).<ref name="Costa-et-al-1916">{{cite book |title=Sleeping Sickness, A Record of Four Years' War against It in the Island of Principe |first1=B. F. |last1=Bruto da Costa |first2=J. F. |last2=Sant' Anna |first3=A. C. |last3=dos Santos |first4=M. G. |last4=de Araujo Alvares |translator-first=J. A. |translator-last=Wyllie |pages=xxii+260 |publisher=Centro Colonial ([[Baillière Tindall]] and Cox) |location=[[Lisbon]] |date=1916 |s2cid=82867664}} (Other {{S2CID|82229617}})</ref><ref name="Nature-book-review-1916">{{cite journal |author=J. W. W. S. |title=The Eradication of Sleeping Sickness from Principe |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |publisher=[[Nature Research]] |volume=98 |issue=2460 |year=1916 |doi=10.1038/098311a0 |pages=311–312 |bibcode=1916Natur..98..311J |s2cid=3964040 |doi-access=free}}</ref> There are currently serious efforts to do away with them all across Africa, and this is generally viewed as beneficial and morally necessary,<ref name="Simarro-et-al-2008">{{cite journal |last1=Simarro |first1=Pere P. |last2=Jannin |first2=Jean |last3=Cattand |first3=Pierre |title=Eliminating Human African Trypanosomiasis: Where Do We Stand and What Comes Next? |journal=[[PLOS Medicine]] |publisher=[[Public Library of Science]] (PLoS) |volume=5 |issue=2 |date=2008-02-26 |doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050055 |page=e55 |pmid=18303943 |pmc=2253612 |s2cid=17608648 |doi-access=free}}</ref> although not always.<ref name="Bouyer-et-al-2018">{{cite journal |last1=Bouyer |first1=Jérémy |last2=Carter |first2=Neil H |last3=Batavia |first3=Chelsea |last4=Nelson |first4=Michael Paul |author-link4=Michael P. Nelson |title=The Ethics of Eliminating Harmful Species: The Case of the Tsetse Fly |journal=[[BioScience]] |publisher=[[American Institute of Biological Sciences]] and [[Oxford University Press]] |volume=69 |issue=2 |date=2018-12-19 |doi=10.1093/biosci/biy155 |pages=125–135 |pmid=30792543 |pmc=6377282 |s2cid=67788418 |doi-access=free}}</ref>