Man! She's got an expensive pussy!

[astro]

California company sells cloned cat, generating ethics debate

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.

[davenportavenger]

I’m just posting to say that I love the name Genetic Savings and Clone. Like really, that’s an awesome name.

[Shagnasty]

I am saving up several thousand dollars to have my late pet dragonfly “Buzzy” cloned. He suddenly died when he was only 3 weeks old but he was awesome so I want him back.

[Kythereia]

Nice title.

Unfortunately, I think this thread might go the way of Great Debates…

[Bill_H]

I got pretty upset reading about this in today’s paper. Personally, I think the arguments against this sort of thing are lunacy. The big arguments seem to be that this $50k could’ve housed a lot of abandoned cats, and it’s not fair that only the rich can afford it. Whatever; welcome to the real world.

I can’t imagine myself spending $5 for a cat let alone $50k, but if someone wants to, it’s their money and their perogative, and how anyone could see this as controversial or worse unethical is beyond me.

Meanwhile, every time someone pays to xerox their cat, the industry is being funded and progress is being made in an area that will deliver a lot of value one day.

[MagicOrangeBus74]

That’s the cutest cloned pussy I’ve ever seen!

[tim314]

@Bill H.

I got pretty upset reading about this in today’s paper. Personally, I think the arguments against this sort of thing are lunacy. The big arguments seem to be that this $50k could’ve housed a lot of abandoned cats, and it’s not fair that only the rich can afford it. Whatever; welcome to the real world.

I can’t imagine myself spending $5 for a cat let alone $50k, but if someone wants to, it’s their money and their perogative, and how anyone could see this as controversial or worse unethical is beyond me.

Meanwhile, every time someone pays to xerox their cat, the industry is being funded and progress is being made in an area that will deliver a lot of value one day.

I mostly agree with you. My only concern would be: Are we sure that the clone won’t suffer any unusual medical problems? I mean, if we were creating a clone knowing it wouldn’t have the full lifespan of a regular cat or something like that, then I’d take issue with it. But otherwise, who cares? I’d just go buy a new cat myself – after all, it’s not really the same cat, more like an identical twin – but it’s the woman’s money to spend.

[Finagle]

I’m trying to figure out the ethical objections. It’s not like we don’t clone plants on a regular basis. So what’s different about a cat? And what’s wrong with wanting to have a cat genetically identical to a previous cat that worked out well for you?

Then again, I can’t figure out what the ethical objections to human cloning are.

[Cherry2000]

So 6th Day 's Re-Pet Corporation is now a reality, huh?

[ParentalAdvisory]

I don’t see what the problem is either about the 50k. If it’s your money, you should be able to do as you wish with it. The people complaining about it, really need to find a hobby. Consider getting a greal deal on a cat for $5 dollars!

[Boyo_Jim]

Forget ethical issues, how about some practical ones? Suppose she clones her kitty while it is still healthy and in its prime. Or go a couple of steps further. Suppose you own the Grand Champion (or whatever they call it) Dalmation of the Westminster dog show. During the off-season, you start cloning it. You’re filthy rich, and you clone it 100 times, giving you 101 indentical champion quality Dalmations. Can you enter them all in animal shows and sweep the world’s prize money? What if there is a drastic price drop on the technology and you can get a cloned animal for under a thousand bucks. I’d imagine millions of people whould pay that to clone their own, or to have an actual copy of Lassie or Benjy.

I think things like this will happen, and the ethical debate on animals will wither away like most of them do, out of the mainstream headlines but argued passionately on obscure message boards.

And there’s only one reason cloning hasn’t been attempted with humans… well, probably some highschool kids have put clumps of skin in petrie dishes and claimed them to be cloning attempts, but I digress… is that no one knows what to do with “failed” attempts. Fetal medicine may not be advanced enough (I say “may not” because I’m not a medical professional so I’m adding a disclaimer to my speculation here) to detect all the problems that might become apparent post-partum. Imagine an inverse of the Michael Keaton movie Multiplicity, with the loopy poor copies being the first creations, not the last. Except that, as infants, their loopiness wouln’t be so apparent, or they might be born with rare syndromes or have other unpredictable bizarre things.

[Bill_H]

Boyo Jim wrote

Forget ethical issues, how about some practical ones? Suppose she clones her kitty while it is still healthy and in its prime. Or go a couple of steps further. Suppose you own the Grand Champion (or whatever they call it) Dalmation of the Westminster dog show. During the off-season, you start cloning it. You’re filthy rich, and you clone it 100 times, giving you 101 indentical champion quality Dalmations. Can you enter them all in animal shows and sweep the world’s prize money? What if there is a drastic price drop on the technology and you can get a cloned animal for under a thousand bucks. I’d imagine millions of people whould pay that to clone their own, or to have an actual copy of Lassie or Benjy.

I’m not sure why this would be a problem. That’s the point of cloning actually: you find something you like, and make a copy of it. You want to replicate excellence. Whether it was excellence in behavior that made it the perfect pet, or excellence in showmanship, or execellence in any other dimension, such as being the perfect beef bull.

And there’s only one reason cloning hasn’t been attempted with humans… well, probably some highschool kids have put clumps of skin in petrie dishes and claimed them to be cloning attempts, but I digress… is that no one knows what to do with “failed” attempts. Fetal medicine may not be advanced enough (I say “may not” because I’m not a medical professional so I’m adding a disclaimer to my speculation here) to detect all the problems that might become apparent post-partum. Imagine an inverse of the Michael Keaton movie Multiplicity, with the loopy poor copies being the first creations, not the last. Except that, as infants, their loopiness wouln’t be so apparent, or they might be born with rare syndromes or have other unpredictable bizarre things.

Absolutely. And that’s why I think it’s so wonderful that people actually spend $50k for a cat: Every person that pays this puts $50k inot the advancement of cloning technology, and every little advance gets us closer to good copies of people. Every time we mess up, or every time we get some technique a little more precise, we reduce the risk of botching future procedures that can create crippled human clones.

As a side note, 7 years ago or so, I got it in my head that maybe I could buy up some DNA and the rights to use it for some champion horses. I figured it wasn’t worth anything then, as cloning technology was pretty immature, but it could be worth something in 10 or 20 years. I actually investigated this with a friend of mine who owns some race horses, and it turns out I was way behind; people have been buying up these rights for a number of years.