Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Cloned dog meets "twin"
#1
The dogs owner won a contest to have her dog Winnie cloned. Mini Winnie is the result.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/weird-new...ic-4040693

http://metro.co.uk/2014/08/12/beautiful-...e-4829682/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...-twin.html

This is a complex issue. With so many dogs needing homes do we really need to clone them?

Didn't Dolly the cloned sheep die young?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep)

A cloned animal is a genetic replica of another animal, but it is not that other animal. Even pre-birth influences would not be the same.
The owner would be a stranger to the clone at first even if the "parent/twin" was a beloved pet.

Do we really need cloning of any creature? Is it a good idea?
I could see trying to save a valuable mutation that would benefit us all, but there are natural ways of doing that.

Just because we can do it doesn't mean we should.
I have always been a little uneasy about cloning. It seems like a lot of resources tied up in something that has questionable results.

Mini Winnie is a cute puppy though.
[Image: IMG_9091.JPG]
Catherine

Reply
#2
You are right to draw attention to this issue, Catherine. Yes, poor Dolly passed at the young age of six and a half. Sheep usually live to between 10 and 12 years. She was kept indoors the whole of her life and was almost never allowed to go outside, except for publicity photos. It was being kept indoors all the time that resulted in her lung disease.

As you correctly say, a clone may be a genetic copy, but it is definitely not the "same" animal - neither physically, nor spiritually. For example, Dolly did not live to the same age as the animal from whom she was replicated. There are a few facts not commonly known here: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index...553AA2R7Dr (Note that the donor was already physically dead).

There are so many homeless animals crying out for good homes and love and attention. Possibly there might be an argument for cloning where a species is nearly extinct (only one animal left), but otherwise I am afraid the arguments are unconvincing.

The ethics are certainly doubtful. Where is all this leading? To cloning of humans? I suspect so:
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/cienci...tica08.htm (NB Notice that the human embryo was combined with a cow egg stripped of its nucleus!)
and
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/20...harvesting

Let's leave Dr Frankenstein's monster as fiction, eh?!
Reply
#3
I hope sweet little MinnieWinnie will be okay and have a good life, and be loved for herself.
Personally I don't trust cloning.
Also, reproducing a certain pet by cloning strikes me as a very superficial way of seeing a particular individual. As if it's just the body form and physical characteristics which make up that individual! Of course it isn't!
The cloned animal is going to have a completely different character and Soul.

I understand the great bonds people have with pets who pass away. But if ever they want to get another pet, surely they should go to the nearest animal rescue!
Reply
#4
Have you seen the movie The Island.
I won't spoil it for you, but it does make it clear that a clone is not the same as the one it is cloned from.

I think I might have heard of the human cloning work. I suspect that there are actual clones out there.
This could go either way. Parents might want to clone a dead child as a replacement or they might want to clone a child as a donor for a living child.
A person might want a clone of themselves to raise as a child or they might want to have a clone as an organ donor for themselves.

The same could be true for pet cloning. The pet could be a replacement or it could be a donor.

None of these are good reasons for cloning. A clone is not a replacement for a lost one. A clone as a donor is even worse.

We may find there are good reasons for cloning(bring back the woolly mammoth?), but so far we are not using good reasons.

The large sum of money that it took to clone the dog could have done a lot of good if donated to good medical research or a good animal shelter.
Lots of dogs need homes. It would honor a dead pet to bring home a needy dog. Cloning the dog is more of a selfish desire to hang on to it as a position. as you say, the spirit of the clone would not be the same as the original pet.
[Image: IMG_9091.JPG]
Catherine

Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)
Created by Zyggy's Web Design