TFA is about northern white rhinos, which are critically endangered by heavy poaching.
So actually for some species, human-caused extinction could be avoided simply by such artificial reproduction techniques. In fact this may be the only way, since there are now so few of these rhinos left that we don't have time to try more experiments to find out how to encourage breeding. (We certainly can't figure it out by observing wild populations, since we've poached those to extinction already.)
Also, if we had a technology to reproduce these animals at a much faster rate than is natural, then poachers (who are using other recent technology to eliminate these animals at a much faster rate than is natural) would cease to be a problem. Posters above have already made the case for preservation by domestication, but in this case (despite all our attempts to eradicate the ridiculous belief that keratin obtains some mysterious power when taken from some phallic icon) clearly the economy already does have a use for these rhinos (and lack of reproductive technology is the main obstacle to farming them, so we would not even need to modify these animals to be more appealing). Thus this technology could easily pay back its own development, even without considering the spinoffs that such iPSC germ cell research would be anticipated to advance human medicine.
But it's still valid for you to emphasise the ecosystem (or would be if you weren't unconstructive). Even if not applicable to these particular animals, habitat encroachment is certainly becoming the prime factor in the incredible rate of current extinctions. This is devastating, since our understanding of DNA is only just advancing to the point that we recognise what a wealth of information is being lost with diminishing biodiversity, it's like burning the library that stores millions of years of engineering insights which can guide biotechnology (for example, most pharmaceuticals even today are discovered, not invented, and their processes of chemical synthesis are similarly not only inspired by biology but often too difficult or more expensive to synthesis except through harvesting natural components), not to mention the encoded historical record (without which our understanding of our past must always have larger gaps), and abstract value (which only grows as are progressively less preoccuppied labouring for bare necessities). Hence the huge importance that we curb the raw growth (rather than development) of the economy, like we are finally only beginning to do in the issue of carbon. And that we halt this planet's human population growth (and it looks like being a long time before we have somewhere else to populate): we educate women (and quit forbidding family-planning tools while we're at it) and do more to eliminate extreme poverty (rather than using the reality that a portion of funds will leak and miss our target as an excuse to not contribute to the target at all). We generally need to adopt a more progressive stance, and quit bashing science, decora. Each extinction may cause a cascade. Who knows what other (perhaps little-known) species may be indirectly dependent on the existence on these rhinos for example. Certainly there will be species-specific parasites that directly depend on the host, which may not be as appealing but still embody potentially-useful knowledge. We only recently realised how organisms unique to a panda's gut are relevant to the development of biofuels.
(didn't really intend anonymous)
