Glowing Cats

Read the article here.

South Korean Scientists have apparently cloned cats that glow under UV light. I am still with furrowed brow trying to figure out why on earth this would be an important step in the cloning process, but I guess it is much easier to prove that you have successfully modified the genetic structure of an animal when all you need is UV light to show the outcome. I am just hoping and praying that this does not become next years must have Christmas gift.

I understand the key role that cloning plays in the human desire to "play" with genetic codes in order to eventually be able to erase markers in humans which lead to disease and birth defects. I have a friend who's with a great guy who happens to have diabetes and he is completely wiping the idea off the table of ever having kids because he would never want to pass his struggle onto an offspring. Thankfully, my friend has no interest in having a child, so this situation will hopefully work out fine for both of them. However, imagine that the two of them really wanted to have a child of their own and this disease that runs in his family was the only reason keeping them from that dream. Imagine in the future, that they could go to a fertility specialist who would take his sperm and modify it slightly, or be able to select the ones without the genetic code for diabetes. That would be such a miracle to many people who have similar "genetic flaws" to be able to feel good about becoming a parent, and not having to worry so much about passing things onto their baby such as a high risk for breast cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, or any number of diseases which humans face.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not one who likes the thought that there are many animals out there being used for experiments and their lives are spent in inhumane conditions and forced to go through awful surgeries and testing. But I do think that there is a humane and responsible way that we can learn new medical breakthroughs by cloning and modifying genetic code. We just need to make sure that we don't cross those lines and make animals suffer for the sake of advancement in medicine and technology.