--- Ronn!Blankenship <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > ...and some other reports: > > <<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/29/science/29WIRE-MULE.html>> > <<http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-science-mule.html>>
The pic of the mule foal is cute. But I see that they didn't clone the actual racing mule of interest, rather they re-mated its sire and dam, then aborted the fetus and used those cells to clone. And even using these younger, less-likely-to-have-accumulated-genetic-damage cells, it took ~300 tries to get any live foals. Given the shorter (and often less-healthy) lives of most animals cloned from adult cells so far, I think this is a stupid commercial venture (although as basic research, considering the differences they cited WRT horses and cancer, it is interesting and potentially useful). Cloning vast arrays of chickens, pigs and cows for the table, besides seeming quite labor-intensive, reminds me of a short story I read decades ago, in which a demented man stranded on a space station clones billions of human cells (?zygotes), "blesses" them, then - having saved the "souls" - he destroys them, 'keeping them forever innocent and pure.' Or something like that. As much as I love my cats and horses, I would not attempt to clone them, even if the process were "perfect." The individual with whom I have/had a relationship, when dead, is *gone.* I may mourn them for years, but to attempt to re-create them seems to me both overweeningly arrogant and disrespectful. As for the endangered taki (Mongolian wild horse), it has been reintroduced to its native land, and the herds, watched by dedicated horsemen-and-women, slowly grow. Without cloning. http://www.imh.org/imh/bw/prz.html#wild Debbi One-of-A-Kind Maru __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM). http://calendar.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
