At least two dozen surrogate canine mothers have been implanted with clone embryos and the researchers are waiting to see which, if any, develop into pregnancies. It's hard to predict how long it will take. Meanwhile, Westhusin and his colleagues are looking to turn their pioneering dog cloning technology into a profit. GSC claims to have already received three months' worth of orders in the first three days. The company expects that high demand will halve the cost every year.
Some people are crazy about their animal and some are just plain crazy.
In addition to household pet cell storage, GSC is also offering a gene bank for valuable livestock. The company plans to launch nonprofit divisions later this year for preserving the DNA of wildlife and endangered species, as well as assistance and rescue dogs. GSC joins a growing field of cryogenic cloning companies, which includes Canine Cryobank and Clonaid . But while the cloning of farm livestock is increasingly common in the wake of Dolly the sheep, creating genetic copies of household pets is fraught with technical and ethical difficulties. It takes us another step toward treating living organisms as commodities or products.