Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Snuppy freaks me out

Just when I was all excited to write about happy subjects like dancing, I turn to the Washington Post on my lunch break only to be visually affronted by a picture of the first ever cloned dog, Snuppy. Evidently, researchers at the Seoul National University in South Korea accomplished this feat. According to the Post, one of the first groups to congratulate the team was a company in California known as Genetic Savings & Clone. I'm not making this shit up...read it yourself.

This bothers me on so many different levels.

1) Cloned mammals (and potentially babies, if we continue on this path) are not the same. They don't have the same personalities or disposition as the thing being cloned.
2) If people are allowed to replace a beloved pet (and, again, potentially a child), won't this forever disturb the grieving process?
3) What are the implications for procreation? Can cloned animals give birth? Will they be able to in the future?
4) How advanced is this if they still have to use living dogs to extract DNA from, harvest eggs, and eventually carry these freakazoids to term?
5) I think this takes the term "playing God" to a whole new level. I know people have argued about the advancements this can lead to in treating certain diseases and the potential to be able to grow organs, but these organs are going to be attached to human beings. All you have to do is turn on the TV or go see the latest movie to see Hollywood framing the debate for us. Let's face it, what we once called sci-fi is now our reality, so who is to say what we shriek at now onscreen won't happen?
6) Any group of people who name animals things like 'Snuppy' or businesses 'Genetic Savings & Clone' shouldn't be allowed to operate heavy machinery.

3 comments:

  1. SNUPPY? wow


    I think people forget that it's not just genes that make up a person but the influence of the environment. Genetics is not as cut and dry as some cloning supporters make it out to be.

    SNUPPY?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous7:57 AM

    Hey (serious reply for once),

    If you think that that US government research labs haven't already cloned people, and been doing so for several years, then YOU are the one living in the fantasy world. It is a well known and well documented fact that government labs and think tanks are at least a decade ahead of the general population and that our "modern" technology is just trickle down run off.

    Do I support cloning? Yes. Do I think that cloned people have a soul? ha ha ha ha ha......you tell me. Does cloning someone and having them grow up to be a great person with children of their own prove that god doesn't exist? Absolutely.

    Barron

    ReplyDelete
  3. We have God-given free will and unlimited mind power. He gave us many, many ways to fuck ourselves. I think it proves just the opposite...the He does exist.

    ReplyDelete