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Originally Posted by ree-Xi
Actually, it would be very unlikely that a cloned pet would have the same personality traits as the original. If you do your research, you will find that many traits are developed by one's environment. Look at identical twins - nature's clones. Even though both may have certain proclivities, whether they are raised in the same household or not, they invariably have many differences.
For examples, my sisters, identical twins, took different roles on as children and thus as adults. One was two minutes older, and as a result was always called the "oldest". They competed over everything, yet one or the other would do better in practically everything they did: grades, sports, etc. One loved math, the other loved enlgish. One is a CEO, the other is a Social Worker.
An example about pets: You kitty might be a lap cat, but maybe that's because it was raised with lots of mommy and human contact. Your cloned kitty could likely be raised for the first month or so alone, with no mommy to teach her to do "cat things". She may not like to jump on your lap because perhaps she fell off something and is afraid of heights.
There are easily hundreds of falacies about cloning and genetics. Though most people think that it is a simple process, it's an extremely complicated theory with too many variables to imagine. Even with animals.
ETA: The ability to clone organs would theoretically be quite beneficial for humans, since there are already so many on transplant lists, and the potential and incidence of organ rejection is a huge risk. Having one's own genetic organ available could potentially solve a crisis that loses thousands of people a year to organ failure.
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Wow...ya know, I didn't think about the environmental issues with cloning a pet.
You're right. That makes sense. I guess attempts to clone animals could back up the idea that cloning isn't the most healthy way to start off life.
Actually, this subject came up in one of my classes, with cloned animals, I read that at least the few that make it past the fetal stage, have been affected variously by enlarged organs, and problems with their immune system, joints and liver as well as obesity. I also agree with what you said about the problems in cloning, because some of the conditions are thought to be down to errors in the reprogramming of genes during the cloning procedure. Like you said it isn't that easy. I mean, like plants for example. People have been cloning plants for thousands of years. It's simple. You just take a leaf cutting from a plant and grow it into a new one. That's a form of cloning...I guess.
Cloning animals is harder because with a few exceptions, most animals reproduce sexually, unlike plants, they need genetic information from both male and female.
I'm not sure if you remember, but a few years ago a lady paid 50 grand to some company in California to clone her pet cat, who died of old age. Well, anyway, after the cat was born, according to the owner, it was said to have exactly the same personality as the orignial.