Pet cloning for pet loss?

PARK JONG-MOO
The author is a veterinarian.

Recently, a YouTuber created a controversy by cloning her dead dog. She’d stopped her activities on the platform when her pet died. A year later, she revealed that she’d cloned it. While some respect that she must have been deeply saddened by the loss, an animal rights group raised the possibility of animal abuse.

Many view cloning positively, as it is an advanced technology. But reality points in the opposite direction. The first cloned dog, named Snuppy, was created by professor Lee Byeong-cheon at Seoul National University. A total of 1,095 embryos were transplanted into 123 female dogs for the experiment; only three were confirmed pregnant, and Snuppy was the only pup to survive, yielding a success rate of 0.27 percent.

The success rate of embryonic cloning has not changed significantly more than 20 years later. The success rate of somatic cell nuclear cloning has not reached three percent, according to 2022 paper published in Science Direct. At least 100 embryos and 10 surrogate mothers are still necessary to produce one cloned dog. The morality of using so many dogs to produce one clone is an important discussion.

The death of a beloved pet is a great tragedy. But we must consider whether it is right to resolve such pain with a cloned animal.

Life often brings great sorrow, and nothing compares to the pain of unexpectedly losing a child. But people don’t try to get out of sadness by cloning their children. Why? In addition to the fact that it is banned by law, the cloning process involves various ethical problems. And most of all, the cloned child is not the same child you loved.