California company sells cloned cat, generating ethics debate

California company sells cloned cat, generating ethics debate
Posted by davepeck on 23 Dec, 2004 11:42
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The first cloned-to-order pet sold in the United States is named Little Nicky, an eight-week-old kitten delivered to a Texas woman saddened by the loss of a cat she had owned for 17 years.

The kitten cost its owner $50,000 and was cloned from a beloved cat, named Nicky, that died last year. Nicky\'s owner banked the cat\'s DNA, which was used to create the clone.

"He is identical. His personality is the same," the woman told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

The company, Sausalito-based Genetic Savings and Clone, made her available to speak to reporters only on condition that her name or hometown not be used. The woman said she fears being the target of groups opposed to cloning.

"Nicky loved water, which is an unusual characteristic of cats. Little Nicky jumped into my bath," said the woman, who said she is in her early 40s and employed in the airline industry.

The company delivered Little Nicky two weeks ago and was expected to publicly announced the news Thursday.

While Little Nicky frolics in his new home, the kitten\'s creation and sale has reignited fierce ethical and scientific debate over cloning technology, which is rapidly advancing.

By May, the company said it hopes to have produced the world\'s first cloned dog -- a much more lucrative market than cats. While it is based in the San Francisco Bay area, the company\'s cloning work will be done at its new lab in Madison, Wis.

Commercial interests already are cloning prized cattle for about $20,000 each, and scientists have cloned mice, rabbits, goats, pigs, horses -- and even the endangered banteng, a wild bull that is found mostly in Indonesia.

Several research teams around the world, meanwhile, are racing to create the first cloned monkey.

Aside from human cloning, which has been achieved only at the microscopic embryo stage, no cloning project has fueled more debate than the marketing plans of Genetic Savings and Clone.

"It\'s morally problematic and a little reprehensible," said David Magnus, co-director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford. "For $50,000, she could have provided homes for a lot of strays."

Animals rights activists complain that new feline production systems aren\'t needed because thousands of stray cats are euthanized each year for want of homes.

Genetic Savings and Clone chief executive Lou Hawthorne said his company purchases thousands of ovaries from spay clinics across the country. It extracts the eggs, which are combined with the genetic material from the animals to be cloned.

Critics also complain the technology is available only to the wealthy, that using it to create house pets is frivolous and that customers grieving over lost pets have unrealistic expectations of what they\'re buying.

In fact, the first cat cloned in 2001 had a different coat from its genetic donor, underscoring that environment and other biological variables make it impossible to exactly duplicate animals.

"The thing that many people do not realize is that the cloned cat is not the same as the original," said Bonnie Beaver, a Texas A&M animal behaviorist who heads the American Veterinary Medical Association, which has no position on the issue.

"It has a different personality. It has different life experiences. They want Fluffy, but it\'s not Fluffy."

The company says it carefully counsels its customers about what they\'ll receive, but insists myriad personality and physical traits will be passed from genetic donor to cloned offspring.

Little Nicky\'s owner said the company "under promised and over delivered" her cat, which is of the Maine coon variety. A native New England breed, the Maine coon gets its name from the resemblance of a tabby Maine coon\'s tail to that of a raccoon.

Still other scientists warn cloned animals suffer from more health problems than their traditionally bred peers and that cloning is still a very inexact science. It takes many gruesome failures to produce just a single clone.

Genetic Savings and Clone said its new cloning technique, developed by animal cloning pioneer James Robl has improved survival rates, health and appearance. The new technique seeks to condense and transfer only the donor\'s genetic material to a surrogate\'s egg instead of an entire cell nucleus.

"Within the next five years, it\'s going to be known as the healthiest animals to get," Hawthorne said.

Between 15 percent and 45 percent of cloned cats born alive die within the first 30 days, Hawthorne said. But he said that range is consistent with natural births, depending on the breed of cat.

Austin-based ViaGen Inc., which has cloned hundreds of cows, pigs and goats, also is experimenting with the new cloning technique.

"The jury is still out, but the research shows it to be promising," company president Sara Davis said. "The technology is improving all the time."

Genetic Savings and Clone has been behind the creation of at least five cats since 2001, including the first one created. It hopes to deliver as many as five more clones to customers who have paid the company\'s $50,000 fee. By the end of next year, it hopes to have cloned as many as 50 cats.

The company is backed by John Sterling, founder of the University of Phoenix, who has funneled more than $10 million into the company, which has yet to turn a profit.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/12/22/state1724EST0109.DTL&type=printable

thoughts?

#1 Reply
Posted by freddiewaht on 23 Dec, 2004 12:27
my thoughts are that they should go ahead and clone cats..no problem..the day they clone leith,thats a question of unethicalnivity....

#2 Reply
Posted by leith on 23 Dec, 2004 13:11
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Originally posted by freddiewaht
my thoughts are that they should go ahead and clone cats..no problem..the day they clone leith,thats a question of unethicalnivity....

Nothing wrong w/ more pussies around huh Wah?
Is unethicalnivity a Bonus word in your Spelling class? jus\' wonderin\'

#3 Reply
Posted by obsession600 on 23 Dec, 2004 14:35
"Genetic Savings and Clone" best company name ever

#4 Reply
Posted by Stephengencs on 23 Dec, 2004 14:54
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Originally posted by freddiewaht
my thoughts are that they should go ahead and clone cats..no problem..the day they clone leith,thats a question of unethicalnivity....

rotfl rotfl
rotfl rotfl
rotfl rotfl

Quote
Originally posted by Obsession600
"Genetic Savings and Clone" best company name ever

Classic..... I would trademark that now and then sell it in 20 years just before the clones take over the world....

#5 Reply
Posted by Todd on 23 Dec, 2004 17:41
Genetically Cloned Pussies---great name for a band

#6 Reply
Posted by Wolfman on 27 Dec, 2004 23:28
I support cloning 100%. There is a huge upside to cloning humans. We can "back up" or "save" ourselves, just like we do with work on a computer. What if you could go home every night and in a few minutes clone yourself, keeping the clone asleep until you make the next clone. If you tragically die that day, your loved ones can revive the clone and you\'ll be right back in action having only lost a few hours of experience. "You" would still be dead, but everyone else in the world could continue the joys of living with you. Think of it as highly advanced life insurance. It\'s just like saving a document...once you save, if your application suddenly crashes or something, you can just go back and continue from the latest save.

Cloning is also good because if we have an entirely cloned population, then we can quarantine and eventually eliminate all STD\'s since sexual intercourse will be unnecessary. Also, if everyone is cloned then the human species can slowly adapt to not need sexual intercourse, which would save us a lot of other problems. In fact, after about a 1-2 million years of a completely cloned population, we would probably adapt and become completely incapable of sex.

Finally, cloning can be immesnly beneficial if we can program our clones to be subservient to the alpha specimen. Everyone could have 2 or 3 clones that they can dispatch as needed to "be" them when they need to be more than one place at once. The subservient clones then report their experiences back to the master, and go back into a state of inactivity until they are tapped again. You could dispatch one clone to watch the game with your buddy, another to run errands, and another to stay home do work and answer the phone, all while you go to The Breakfast. Then the clones report back to you so you have all the experiences, and go to rest until you need them again. You could keep everyone happy because you could always be there for everyone. It would be even better for people who are actually important, like The President. He could be in Washington, China, Britain, and Iraq at the same time. You could even have the President on the front lines, rallying the troops every day. They would be fired up because it is the President, but if he gets killed it wouldn\'t matter because 1. the alpha President is in Texas and 2. there are enitre vaults full of backup Presidents in secret underground locations throughout the country.

I would love to have 3 clones.

#7 Reply
Posted by Stephengencs on 28 Dec, 2004 09:10
Who wants to live in a world where sexual intercourse would be unnecessary?

Didn\'t you ever see the simpsons where homer buys the magic hammock? Cloning is no good for anyone.....

#8 Reply
Posted by SlimPickens on 28 Dec, 2004 13:37
last week it was announced that some woman paid $50K to have her beloved cat cloned.

#9 Reply
Posted by SlimPickens on 28 Dec, 2004 13:38
i should probably read all the posts before I post... dope

#10 Reply
Posted by Stephengencs on 28 Dec, 2004 13:40
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Originally posted by SlimPickens
i should probably read all the posts before I post... dope

Indeed...

Newb

P.S. I just saved you from the newb error of posting 3 separate posts in a row...

#11 Reply
Posted by freddiewaht on 28 Dec, 2004 14:00
shaggs,congradulations on your 21st post..how do you plan on celebrating??

#12 Reply
Posted by SlimPickens on 28 Dec, 2004 14:42
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Originally posted by freddiewaht
shaggs,congradulations on your 21st post..how do you plan on celebrating??

Gorillalinks.com!!

#13 Reply
Posted by freddiewaht on 28 Dec, 2004 14:56
next time you need to give me the warning not office safe...rephrase it not olivia safe though...