South Korean scientists report that they’ve cloned a male Afghan hound. Dogs are thought to be the most difficult animal to clone do to their very complex and unusual reproductive system. The scientists report their success in this week’s issue of the scientific journal Nature. The pooch’s name? “Snuppy,” for Seoul National University. Snuppy’s surrogate mother was a Labrador retriever. From today’s New York Times:
Snuppy is the second coup this year for the Seoul researchers. In May, (Woo Suk) Hwang’s lab announced that it had created cloned human embryos and extracted stem cells from them. The dog project is separate, and its goal, Dr. Hwang explained in an e-mail message, is to use dogs to study the causes and treatment of human diseases.Dogs have long been used to study human diseases. Rabies, in fact, was first discovered in dogs, insulin was discovered in dogs, and the first open heart surgery was in dogs. Eventually, the team hopes to make dog embryonic stem cells and test them in the animals as treatments…
Until dog cloning becomes a lot more efficient, few people will be able to afford to clone their pets. Mr. Hawthorne estimated that it would cost more than $1 million to repeat what the South Koreans have done.
The market among dog owners might not be much, in any case. Apart from ethical issues, (Chicago-Kent College of Law bioethicist Nigel) Cameron said, dogs are like family members. “My dog is now deceased,” he said. “But I wouldn’t want to clone Charlie. It would be disrespectful to Charlie and to Charlie II.”
