Snuppy, the first cloned dog, will become a father and the controversy continues

(Photo of Snuppy as a puppy, his clone father and surrogate mother)

The sperm of Snuppy an Afghan hound has successfully impregnated two cloned Afghan Hound bitches through artificial insemination, researchers at Seoul National University announced.

If the births take place, it will mark the first time that cloned dogs have reproduced successfully, according to lead researcher Lee Byung-Chun.

“The second generation of cloned animals used to be malformed but we have not found any abnormal aspects about the fetuses so far," Lee said, indicating that ultrasonic tests show the fetuses are healthy.

The published stories have caused an angry reaction from authorities at the Seoul National University which has a strict policy against releasing research results to the press before publication in academic papers. This policy came about after another cloning expert, Wang Woo-Suk, was caught faking results of stem cell research.

"This is a breach of school regulations against releasing experiment results to the press before completing relevant academic papers," Kook Yang, the research department head, told journalists.

“The university will discipline Lee,” he said. source

Kind of makes us wonder about researchers playing God when they seem to be publicity whores who can’t follow the rules of human ethics.

Comments

[Tom & Icy]

That's like science fiction coming true. In this sense it is useless and much more expensive than the natural way. Probably paving the way to clone humans. But what if there were wars using atomic weapons and the fall-out radiation made people sterile? But most likely they will want to clone people and use the clones for spare parts in organ transplants. Anything for profit.

[lola smiles]

"Kind of makes us wonder about researchers playing God when they seem to be publicity whores who can’t follow the rules of human ethics"

You hit the nail on the head.
Not all scientists are like that tho'.
That's what my mom says.

but this is wrong, so wrong. :(

[Sling]

Here's what I like about cloning:
I think it presents a viable means of preserving species that are in danger of becoming extinct,and may even return to us some of those that have already gone the way.
The Wooly Mammoth looks like one of our best prospects in that regard.

Here's what I don't like about cloning:
There is none of the naturally selective process that allows species to evolve.You get what you had.
..How's that for riding the fence?

On a totally unrelated note,The inbreeding of Guppy's resulted in inferior offspring until about the third generation.
At which point,the progeny began to become more colorful,and robust!

I'm done taking now.
The end result is the marvelous fancy's we have today.

[jackie]

just too weird for me...what ever happened to plain ole fucking?

[gus and louie]

We agree that cloning would be ok if it were because of something becoming extinct otherwise we are not to play God..

Big Sloppy Kisses
Gus and Louie

[schnoodlepooh]

I guess all of that scientific experimentation is interesting and if there were only two afghan hounds left on earth, it would be a good idea to clone them to preserve the breed. With all of the excess animals being euthanized in shelters these days though, it just doesn't make sense to me to create more.

[Janey Loree]

Hi Jan! I have always been against cloning, feeling that we are trying to play God. And even though I still believe that and agree with schnoodlepooh, if we could clone our gelding mustangs, Coal and Cahlibur, the offspring clones would be awesome...

[Jimmy]

I have mixed emotions about it. But I'm not gonna get fret over it. There's worse stuff out there to worry about.

[Jackie]

Don't like cloning myself. Read some real horror stories on clones that went wrong before they actually perfected it. What next humans ?

[pam]

Mom - along the 'playing God' lines, you should see the movie "The Island" with Ewan McGregor. I think Dan has it.

[Lora]

I have very mixed feelings about this... Interesting story though.

[cube]

I remember posting about Snuppy when he was cloned and now we have Son of Snuppy. The pace of the future is fast & frantic.