Good-bye Dolly

[Dixon Carter Lee]

They euthanized Dolly the cloned sheep because she had progessive lung disease. Another sign that cloned animals may very well be flawed copies.

Someone call the UFO idiots.

 

[Mockingbird]

They euthanized Dolly the cloned sheep because she had progessive lung disease. Another sign that cloned animals may very well be flawed copies.

Jesus I'm trying hard to be interesting and funny.

squawk

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

squawk

Polly want a stem cell?

 

[Moi]

Next in line: Carol Channing

 

[Uber Sparky]

You say goodbye.... I say hello.....

Hello Dolly.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

She died years ago, but the reviews have been so good that she just won't lie down.

 

[ma_guy]

Damn! Now I'm without a date for Saturday night.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Didn't they clone a cow recently? There you go.

 

[Myrrdin]

Dolly was seven years old.
Three years is middle aged for a sheep. By six all their teeth have worn away. Dolly lived longer than most sheep.

 

[perks]

Next in line: Carol Channing

I really was thinking that this was a thread about her. EEK!!!

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Dolly was seven years old.
Three years is middle aged for a sheep. By six all their teeth have worn away. Dolly lived longer than most sheep.

Sheep live about 12 years, and don't get anything like lung disease until well near the end. The worry aobut cloning has always been that the copy will not "age" properly, and will be born "old". Human children that are cloned may face a very short life span full of disease.

 

[Myrrdin]

DCL

Your hands on experience of sheep around Hollywood must be immense.
Although your veterinary education must have missed out pasteurella haemolytica and lungworm.

 

[sunstruck]

That settles it. Life IS a combination of Orwell and King gone horribly awry.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Your hands on experience of sheep around Hollywood must be immense.

I'm pretty sure they have sheep in Scotland. From: http://abcnews.go.com/

Dr. Harry Griffin of the Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, said today that sheep can live to 11 or 12 years and lung infections are common in older sheep, particularly those housed inside.

Last year Dolly's creators announced she had developed arthritis at the relatively early age of 5 1/2 years, stirring debate over whether cloning procedures might be flawed.

 

[sunstruck]

I'm pretty sure they have sheep in Scotland.

They use them to as caddies on golf courses.

 

[Spinaroonie]

Did we really need more evidence that the clone was a shitty copy? I mean getting arthiritis when it was one was a big fucking clue, let along the cell structure.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Plus it went "Bark!" What's up with that?

 

[Oliver Clozoff]

Interesting. Dolly's early death is certainly suspicious for causes related to having been cloned (perhaps shortened telomeres, accumulated DNA mutational errors, etc.)

Not being familiar with the normal average lifespan of a domesticated sheep, I had to look for a general consensus online and it seems to be about 12 years, so she definitely seemed have have died early.

I'd be careful to generalize too much from this, though. This is one animal among thousands that have now been successfully cloned. There are a lot of data still out. Plus, they'll do a post-mortem and that'll surely tell us more.

If I had to bet, though, I'd put my money are there being some significant health-related consequences related to cloning. There's all kinds of good data suggesting cumulative damage from multiple cell divisions. Cloned animals would seem to me to be starting life already with a half a lifetime's worth of genetic mutations and telomere shortening.

We'll see, though.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

We'll see, though.

The question is how much of "we'll see" do we get before we risk cloning a human? I have a feeling that it won't be much. I don't think the Clonaid people have done squat, but a cloned baby, one most likely with multiple health problems (and no parents to claim protective "custody"), will be born much sooner than later, I think.

 

[JadeEyes]

I really was thinking that this was a thread about her. EEK!!!

I was thinking along the same lines...that either Carol Channing or Dolly Parton had died.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

No, no, Carol's still growin', she's still crowin', she's still goin' strong.

 

[JadeEyes]

Well, it's good to know that she's okay, even though, she kinda frightens me....lol.

 

[Oliver Clozoff]

The question is how much of "we'll see" do we get before we risk cloning a human? I have a feeling that it won't be much. I don't think the Clonaid people have done squat, but a cloned baby, one most likely with multiple health problems (and no parents to claim protective "custody"), will be born much sooner than later, I think.

Very true. The people who are pushing forward with human cloning trials are already ignoring solid data showing fantastically high rates of spontaneous abortion and fetal malformations in animals and pushing ahead. If that doesn't make them blink why should premature chronic diseases of aging like osteoarthritis or Alzheimer's which won't show up for years? Even the immense legal liability potential (imagine the jury awards damaged clones could win) probably won't phase them.

When there's lots of money to be made and immense scientific glory to be won, those kinds of considerations seem to be secondary.