Like it or not, horse cloning is now open for business..

[Fuego]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12088086/

[baileyholc]

What make scientest think they can play God? I think this is wrong.

[Brigitte]

What make scientest think they can play God? I think this is wrong.

I'm not much a fan of it either

[reuben T]

they've been fooling with genes for a long time, in some ways it looks like they're pretending to be God, i think it's because most of them think God dosn't exist. but what if he does? ("The fool has said in his heart there is no God") basicly it's the same thing that's done with plant reproduction all the time, but plant cells don't age like animal cells do. The worst part is mixing species, and this thing of mixing animal genes with plants is really going out of bounds. I can pick a tomato sprig and put it in a glass of water, it'll grow roots and i can plant it. Plant cloning is just a more technical way of doing the same thing in mass, getting lots of plant starts from one piece of leaf. As i understand it animal cloning is almost identical, but because of the aging of cells it's like the cloned animal being older that it's age would indicate. So it's stupid to even try.

[CarolU]

Well, being a scientist, I don't consider cloning anymore "playing God" then all our select breeding, hybrids, crossbreds, and on and on. We've been playing God, or tampering with Mother Nature (take your pick) for years - and often with horrible results. Look at what we did to German Sheperds and Labradors (bred in dyslplasia), cats without hair, mice without hair, have you ever seen tumbling pigeons? How dumb is that?

We have been cloning for years, only now it is with mamels instead of just plants. And who wouldn't want their favorite dog around forever?

Now, I agree we shouldn't clone people, but that has more to do with the fact that the earth is already overpopulated with the human species. We should be sterilizing, not breeding. JMHO

[Brigitte]

We have been cloning for years, only now it is with mamels instead of just plants. And who wouldn't want their favorite dog around forever?


But that's the thing...he may have your favorite dog's genes but won't be the same...therefor I dont see a reason to clone your favorite pet or a legandary horse or something. They only come along once in a while.

JMHO

Alex mentioned wanting to clone Batman when she first heard there might be a possibility, but at $150,000 each, how many people can afford to try and produce anything identical to the original? And we must remember that environment has a lot of effect on both the original animal and the clones. Different environments and nutrition may produce something that only looks like the original.

[Terry Wallace]

Well..ya all know me....I'm 100% FOR it... I do not consider it "tampering with God"...quite the contrary...I consider it God giving us the knowledge to DO it... If he didn't want us to do it...we'd never figure out how.....

I'd like to order two clones of Secretariat PLEASE....!!!!

Please do not take a narrow-minded view of this....
Ever had a parent with Alzhiemers? Ever known a paraplegic? This kind of technology could eventually FIX all of that...don't close your minds please!!

JMO...people...JMO...

I have always loved science in any form...

[Abejita]

there is a TB stallion at the vet clinic that is mainly used to sire Polo Ponies.His owner just had the tissue sent off to clone him (he is 25) and there is a mare ,another Polo Pony ,they are doing it to also.Supposedly the crosses of that mare and stallion bring big bucks in Europe.
It is only 150,000 if it is done as 'research' which is what the Polo Pony is being done as.To do it 'private' is 350,000 according to my vet.

I dont think people who clone are looking to reproduce a personality but the genes that may have already produced greatness of one degree or another.[/quote]

[CarolU]

I imagine with time the price will come down. Remember the Endurance horse cloned last year? They didn't clone for another Endurance champion, they clones for the genes to produce more. Amazing really.

There are good points and bad points with cloning. If they can clone a cow that produces lean high protien meat on little feed, they can feed millions of people. But if that same cow's offspring are all susceptable to the same genetic disease, it is not a good thing and can create havoc.

I would love nothing more then to drill down in the soil, grab some DNA, and clone my old horse Tina....but, I dought it will ever be affordable for the average person.

What MAY be affordable though are clones cells to fight cancer, cure AIDS, end Parkinsons...it is an amazing world we live in now.

[Jasfino]

I think there are going to be some very disappointed owners of the clones in the making.

Its no secret how much I think of Jasper.. but even if I could afford to clone him.. the new Jasper wouldnt have the heart and soul of the old Jasper. The new Jasper would be merely a look-a-like with a clean slate just as Jasper had in the beginning.

Nature vs nuture. Both play into it.

Well most of these people dont really care how the horse will act since most clones are being made for breeding and keeping bloodlines.

I dont think a clone is necessary because by the time the clone is old enough to breed - a offspring of the original horse may be inferior to the sire/mare it came from.

For instance the Capuchino clone will be good for a while if Capuchino passes but 10 or 5 years later - comes another Capitan or Arco Iris or any other Capuchino foal and does a better job at the breeding shack - people would want to breed to the better producing stallion.