Dogs are family. They’ll stay by your side in the best of times and the worst, all while showing the same loyalty and love for you that they’ve had for their entire existence. With a dog, you have your best friend, a mate, a child and a guardian all wrapped into one furry package of slobber, poop and love. There’s a reason why science says dogs are good for our health. But, losing a fur child can be one of the most difficult things to endure, considering they’re only with us for a relatively short period of time.
Science and money are changing things. For a small fee of $100,000, South Korean lab Sooam will develop a clone of your dog using a piece of its recently-deceased cheek or abdomen, then inject its developed DNA into a surrogate dog’s egg. An embryo forms, and then that embryo is implanted into the surrogate dog, which will have a (small) litter nine weeks later.
What makes this situation special is that British couple Laura Jacques and Richard Remde’s 8-year-old boxer Dylan had been dead for twelve days, and the cloning still worked. Normally, the dog needs to be only recently deceased in order for the procedure to succeed. Sooam scientist David Kim explained this groundbreaking feat:
“This is the first case we have had where cells have been taken from a dead dog after a very long time. Hopefully it will allow us to extend the time after death that we can take cells for cloning.”
So, out popped this little fella, with a brother, or, himself (???) coming in the next few weeks:
Jacques went on to say that the markings looked exactly the same as Dylan’s but — beyond the ethical questions raised of cloning a dog when millions are waiting for a home — one has to wonder if a family raising this pup that have evolved and changed from who they were eight years ago will in turn, produce a different Dylan. Do experiences make the animal, or is he hardwired to be himself from birth? Or, did they just want a dog that looked exactly like Dylan? These are the questions we need answers to.
(Via The Guardian)
