Cloning Contest Seeks Worthiest UK Dog

[Hum]

Puppy lovers in the United Kingdom may soon get a chance to extend their dog years, thanks to an odd new contest: A South Korean company wants to clone the most beloved U.K. pooch ? again raising ethical questions about the practice of pet cloning.

Headed by a former stem-cell researcher named Woo-Suk Hwang, the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation has been cloning dogs and other animals for years, mostly for U.S. customers. Now, in an effort to expand into the British market, the lab has asked U.K. canine owners to submit a 500-word essay, along with photos and videos, demonstrating why their best friend's genes should live on, Sooam researcher Hanna Heejin Song wrote in an email to LiveScience.

The chosen dog owner gets 70 percent off the usual $100,000 price tag for replicating Rufus.

The process then follows the now-established outline for animal cloning: Sooam researchers will perform a biopsy to extract a viable skin cell from the dog, inject DNA from that cell into another dog's egg cell (one that has been emptied of DNA) and implant the resulting embryo into the womb of a surrogate canine mother.

When successful, the process births a cloned puppy about two months after implantation, Sooam's website says. That "successful" part usually takes several attempts, though ? and several dogs are needed as egg donors and surrogate mothers. In the early days of dog cloning, it took at least dozens of egg donors, said John Woestendiek, author of "Dog, Inc." (Penguin Group, 2010), which investigates the world of dog cloning. "It's down to a handful now." :dog:

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[Shiranui]

Rufus ... Hound?

[The Evil Overlord]

Believe me, I know some right dogs, but I do not think they should ever be cloned

[zhangm Supervisor]

Headed by a former stem-cell researcher named Woo-Suk Hwang, the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation has been cloning dogs and other animals for years, mostly for U.S. customers.

Fake clones.

[Growled Member]

Not my dog they ain't. 

[Coagulated]

Fake clones.

 

Yup. http://stemcellbioethics.wikischolars.columbia.edu/The+Cloning+Scandal+of+Hwang+Woo-Suk

[Torolol]

it still need memory clones though, the 'new dog' doesn't have the precious memory of the old dog.