Malaysian officials recently set loose thousands of "Frankenbugs" into the forests of Asia, in an attempt to curb the spread of dengue fever. Scientists bred the 6,000 genetically-modified Aedes aegypti male mosquitoes in such a way that when they breed with females, the offspring will die early and thus reduce their overall population. Because only female mosquitoes are able to spread dengue fever,officials saw no reason to object to the modified males being released in an attempt to help reduce the mosquitoes' overall population, but Malaysian environmentalist groups and others expressed concern about the long-term effects of releasing such creatures into the wild.
In addition, simply wiping out an entire species may cause more harm than good, because regardless of how pesky they may be to humans, mosquitoes play an important role in the grand scheme of things. Since little is known about the chain-reaction of events that may occur as a result of the project, it is being perceived as an untested experiment that cannot be reversed.
Unbeknownst to most people, mosquitoes are actually very important pollinators. They are also a food source for other species like birds and bats, some of which also play a vital role in agriculture. So my question is, should we being doing this? Is the human problem of dengue fever big enough to upset an entire ecosystem? Do we have the right, even when human lives are at stake?
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