|
Cloned cat sale generates ethics debate
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-24 08:00
The first cloned-to-order pet sold in the United States is named Little
Nicky, a 9-week-old kitten delivered to a Texas woman saddened by the loss of a
cat she had owned for 17 years.
Nine-week-old
'Little Nicky' Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004 in Texas. 'Little Nicky' a
successfully cloned cat was sold to Julie by Genetic Savings and Clone for
$50,000. [AP] | The kitten cost its owner $50,000
and was created from DNA from her beloved cat, named Nicky, who died last year.
"He is identical. His personality is the same," the owner, Julie, told The
Associated Press in a telephone interview. Although she agreed to be
photographed with her cat, she asked that her last name and hometown not be
disclosed because she said she fears being targeted by groups opposed to
cloning.
Yet while Little Nicky, who was delivered two weeks ago, 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.
The company that created Little Nicky, Sausalito-based Genetic Savings and
Clone, said it hopes by May to have produced the world's first cloned dog — a
much more lucrative market than cats.
A Texas woman paid
50,000 dollars to California-based firm Genetic Savings and Clone for a
clone of her pet cat Nicky, who died last year, making her the first owner
of a commercial copy cat. [AFP] | 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 University. "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.
Lou Hawthorne, Genetic Savings and Clone's chief executive, 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 that 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.
![A Dallas, Texas resident Julie, who paid $50,000 to have her cat cloned is presented with Little Nicky the cloned cat in San Francisco on December 10, 2004. The Dallas-area resident stored her cat Nicky's tissue gene bank at Genetic Savings & Clone, Inc. in California and on December 10, she became the first owner of a commercially cloned feline, dubbed Little Nicky. [Reuters]](xin_371201240809239199964.jpg)
A Dallas, Texas
resident Julie, who paid $50,000 to have her cat cloned is presented with
Little Nicky the cloned cat in San Francisco on December 10, 2004. The
Dallas-area resident stored her cat Nicky's tissue gene bank at Genetic
Savings & Clone, Inc. in California and on December 10, she became the
first owner of a commercially cloned feline, dubbed Little Nicky.
[Reuters] | "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."
Scientists also warn that 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.
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, Texas-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 has yet to turn a profit.
|
 | | | Britney Spears named top star of 2004 | | |  | | | 'Flying Daggers' tops Chinese 2004 box office | | |  | | | Angelina Jolie tops the mistletoe kiss poll | | |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top Life
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
