Thursday, August 4, 2005

Seoul National University’s Hwang Woo-Suk has reported his findings in the Journal Nature after being involved in producing the first cloned dog.

The dog, named Snuppy, was born on April 24. He is an Afghan hound. The issue presents a whole host of ethical questions for researchers in the stem cell field.

Companies like Amgen are interested in the technology, as is accounted in Fortune Magazine for making human-safe pharmaceuticals. The business sector relies on technology improvements to make life saving realities.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that Snuppy came from the DNA of the tissue of the ear of the original canine.

According to ABC News Associated Press reporter JI-SOO KIM, Korea has declared that we are still a long way from creating clones of monkeys, which have a great deal more human-like traits.

Slashdot actually reported an RSS feed yesterday at 4:15 p.m. regarding the BBC and Reuters News articles which told of the two successful terms of gestation for Snuppy. “the South Korean team only obtained three pregnancies from more than 1,000 embryo transfers into 123 recipients.” (BBC).

Kennel experts, according to the BBC, agree that there will be many moral issues to contend with, especially among pet lovers.