Tonight during my late evening channel flipping I stumbled across a TLC documentary entitled "i Cloned My Pet," and naturally had to check it out. The title was not a gimmick; the hour long show followed three individuals who sent DNA samples form deceased dogs to South Korea for cloning. Turns out, you can have the "same" pet again for the low, low price of $50,000.
There was the New Jersey financial adviser who had recently lost her job. The former Los Angeles bad boy who literally started a string of business for the sole purpose of raising the money for the cloning. Lastly, a woman sitting in a maximum security prison (location not revealed) awaiting trail for trafficking firearms. I spent most of her segments wondering if the reason for the trafficking was to raise money for the cloning or if it was a previous "business" venture.
Despite the geographical, cultural, and financial differences in these people, they were all definitely what could be categorized as "fur parents." They openly admitted that these dogs were the loves of their lives, and far more important to them than any other living creature, including people. And they were all willing to wait years (3) and do whatever it took to get the money to make their dream of a clone come true.
I won't tell you the outcome of the situations, just in case you decide to try and catch this on a re-run. But I can't help but wonder how this will change veterinary medicine. How will owner expectations of their veterinarian change? What exactly ARE the owners' expectations regarding the life of this pet? Do we routinely monitor for problems that were seen in the original? How will we explain to owners any medical conditions that occurs in this version of a pet that wasn't there the first time around? But first and foremost, how far will this actually go and how common will it become for us to have patients that are clones?
Veterinary medicine is never boring, but the future could potentially be more interesting than I ever realized.
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