Cloning Man's Best Friend

by
Eric Przykuta
Science Department
Lancaster Middle School
Lancaster, NY

The Setting:

Welcome to the Cleaver household, which consists of the loving couple Grace and Jack and their son Ralphy. The Cleavers are your typical all-American family—they even have a house with a white picket fence. They reside in the relatively upscale town of Pleasantville, U.S.A.

The Scenario:

The mood at the Cleaver household has been unusually somber over the last week. Their longtime pet and companion, Spot, a chocolate lab, has been diagnosed with a bad heart and has been given less than a week to live. Spot has been with them for over 15 years and is considered to be part of the family. The family has decided it would be best for Spot if he were put to sleep. It was a very painful decision. He will never be able to be replaced—or will he?

Ralphy wants the family to clone Spot so that they will have an exact copy of their longtime companion. Science-Mart just so happens to be running a special on cloning at the time. Grace is against the idea because of her religious beliefs and the medical uncertainties of cloning. Jack can be swayed either way, but has not made his decision yet.

The Viewpoints:

Grace Cleaver is 45 years old and has worked as a volunteer Sunday school coordinator at the local church for the past 15 years. She is a very active member of the Christian religious community and considers herself to be very conservative. She does not condone the process of cloning at all. "If any thing living was meant to be cloned, it would have been done already by a higher authority," she has said.

Jack Cleaver would be considered by many to be the perfect father. He is 47 years old and a key financial adviser at the local branch of a major bank, and like his wife, he also volunteers his time at the church. But he has a second degree in biology and feels that cloning is a scientific breakthrough. He is caught "on a fence" and could go either way about having Spot cloned.

Ralphy Cleaver is an honor roll student in his junior year of high school and the president of his school's science club. He is also a star chess player. He is an advocate of cloning and has done a lot of research on the subject. He feels that the scientific community and the quality of life on the planet would undoubtedly benefit from the use of this exciting new technology. He believes that people should be allowed to choose for themselves about cloning. He wants Spot to be cloned—not only to have his companion back, but also to support the scientific community.

Image Credit: Former first dog "Buddy Clinton".
Date Posted: 02/03/03 nas
This file is also available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).