Straight out of Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Sixth Day," the disgraced Dr Hwang Woo-suk from the cloning scandal of 2006 is in competition with one of his former hubae in the lab to clone dogs. At $50,000 a pop, er... pup. You've gotta be stupid rich and totally in love with your dog to pay that kinda money. Note title above.The woman in this picture looks like she loves her dog. Or maybe she loves to eat dogs whole. Speaking of dogs as consumer meats, if the procedural costs end up coming down significantly, we could see McDonald's serving your kids SnuppyMeals sometime in the future.
Sure the $50,000 is expensive, however who gets that $50,000? The researchers, the companies developing the technologies and the universities working on the sciences involved. That $50,000 isn't just going into one guy's pocket, it's supporting scientific breakthroughs.
ReplyDeleteWhile many don't agree with cloning, the breakthroughs that have resulted from cloning research are leading to significant advances in the treatment of many serious medical conditions, like leukemia, cancer and heart disease. The knee-jerk opposition to cloning is a result of ignorance of what cloning research entails and the direct benefits to society at large. Just as the space program is criticized for spending "too much money," the space program has benefited basic and applied sciences in ways previously unimagined by the original visionaries who started NASA. I'd rather someone spend 50K on a cloned dog than spend money on expensive purses or paying athletes to hit a ball with a stick. Besides, it's their money, who are we to complain. The US federal government wants to spend trillions on all sorts of crap, yet people will take the time to complain about a private citizen spending their money on something.
Great photo by the way.. it really does look like she wants to eat that pup!