A Cloned Dog Has Now Been Born

Dogs have for years proved to be impossible to clone. No longer. Woo Suk Hwang, the human cloner, has now succeeded in bringing a dog clone to birth.

Why is this important? Biotechnologists are solving the technical difficulties that have made cloning to birth difficult and dangerous in animals. Monkeys are likely to be the next breed of cloned animals born. As I have written previously, cloned monkey embryos have been successfully implanted in uteruses and have gestated for weeks. Sooner or later, a cloned monkey will be born.

After that, unless we place reasonable ethical and legal brakes on this research, will come human cloned fetal farming (as evidenced by Will Saletan’s articles in Slate), and eventually, reproductive cloning.