Healthspan Blog

Mark off June 18th on your calendar if you want to get in on the bidding to have your dog cloned.  A Northern California biotech company has announced that it will clone dogs for the five highest bidders in a series of online auctions. Some ethicists condemned the offer, fearing it could make cloning more acceptable and lead to human clones.

Opening bids start at $100,000 for the service being offered by Mill Valley-based BioArts International. The cloning process is to be performed by a South Korean scientist who suffered international disgrace after being found to have faked research.  BioArts chief executive Lou Hawthorne formerly ran Genetic Savings & Clone, which offered to clone pet cats for $50,000 but folded in 2006 because few were willing to pay so much.

When Hawthrone was asked why dogs and not cats, he replied. “The average dog owner has a different relationship with his dog than the average cat owner,” Hawthorne said. “The level of intensity on the dog side just dwarfed what we saw on the cat side.”

To conduct the clonings, BioArts has partnered with a South Korean research team that recently created three clones of Hawthorne’s family dog, Missy, who died in 2002.  The team was led by Hwang Woo-suk, who scandalized the international scientific community in 2005 when his breakthrough human cloning research involving embryonic stem cells was found to have been faked.

Tests performed at the University of California, Davis’ Veterinary Genetics Laboratory found that DNA samples taken from Missy and the three other dogs appeared to belong to the same individual.  Hawthorne said that after spending 15 years with Missy, he is taking pleasure in seeing her mischievous streak coming out in her clones. They also like steamed broccoli just like she did, he said.  Some groups that monitor advances in genetic technology argue that the company’s project, called Best Friends Again, could serve as a gateway to more unsavory practices.

Critics also have lambasted the project for its association with Hwang. Earlier this month, a researcher close to Hwang told The Associated Press that the scientist, who went into seclusion after the deception was exposed, had established a pet-cloning company in Seoul.  Hawthorne said he was wary of working with Hwang at first but said the Korean scientist had assembled the best technology and talent available. All of Hwang’s results connected to dog cloning have been independently verified, Hawthorne said.

The Korean doctor sounds a bit quacky but I have a feeling that they will be able to sell these 5 auctions because there is not doubt that many folks love their dogs more than humans.