Dog Cloning

My youngest sister and her husband came back to America after a two year business trip to England. My brother-in-law, who works for a sizable company, makes fair amount of money. My sister also has a secure position as a high school teacher and track coach. But they have no children. Their child is a dog named Charlie. When they took him to England, they paid four times more than their own airfare and stayed at a hotel longer to find a suitable house for Charlie. The rent fee of the house the couple and the dog finally found to live in was 3,500 pounds per month. That is the equivalent of $7,000 in America and 7 million won in Korea…what an insane couple. This crazy aunt came to see my second son Tae-Hyung graduate from high school, and told us about the dog cloning business in Korea. She said that if the cost becomes bit more reasonable, she was considering to have Charlie cloned.

This eccentric youngest sister of mine reaffirms the perception of my weirdness among my friends. Their original plan was to drop by Korea and clone the dog, but it was still too expensive. In this circumstance, lots of media including American newspapers made headlines about Korea starting the business of dog cloning. One wealthy lady from America made a $50,000 contract with advanced Korean technology to clone her dog and got several puppies. The pictures of the happy lady and puppies are all over the place.

When I think about cloning, several words like copy, duplicate, imitate, Xerox, etc. come to mind. Whether it is a dog, a cat, a lamb, or a person, there is a clear reason in cloning. People want to clone something because the original is good. If the original is wrong or not fitting to the purpose, no one would try to clone it. There is a group that shows an allergic reaction to the word cloning. It’s Christians. Their reason is the problem of how a man can make another man artificially, when it is only God who can make a human being. I agree to this absolutely. But they are opposed to the cloning of animals that excludes men. They believe that the cloning of animals will eventually lead to cloning a man and so they should stop doing it altogether. I just pass by nodding to it since I do not see their reasoning as wrong.

But there are things we should think about in cloning at least once. No matter how much I uncover the human history, there are not many who became famous because of their appearance or size. Those who are recorded in history were left because of their personality, thoughts and knowledge. People who left their names in sports were born with a great body, but more importantly, the result of discipline and practice.

In my Book (that I do not read daily but every time I get a chance), Paul, who is not the main hero of the book but wrote many of its pages, said this, “Imitate me.” When I first read it, I regarded him as an arrogant and snobby person. What does he think about himself? Is he Jesus? But as I get older and wiser, I am reminded of his words again. I realize that it is not arrogance, but that everyone should put themselves in an appropriate place so that we can be imitated by our beloved disciples, kids, or employees.

Those who know me and my sons always mention, “You guys are really father and son. You act and think the same way.” I used to pay no attention to it, or just assumed that they were referring to appearance, but nowadays, when I think about it carefully, it sounds as if they are talking about worldview or philosophy at a higher level. They may just have said it in passing, but I myself feel terrified. It means if I live a rowdy and selfish life, my sons will do the same thing. It is a theory that when I, the original, live properly, my copies, my sons can live appropriately.

My daughter is no exception. Friends who haven’t seen us for awhile often click their tongue when they see my wife and my daughter and ask, “How come they look so alike?” I know they do not mean just appearance. First of all, my wife is taller than me. My daughter is shorter, barely reaching my shoulder. But the way she talks, and her worldview are exactly the same as her mother. Added to this, when she learns her younger aunt’s passion, big aunt’s good character, and absorbs her grandmother’s pride in herself, she becomes a person who can do a greater work later on in life.

“Cloning”--Instead of looking at it negatively, I want to clone good things as much as possible, and live a life worthy of being cloned. Who said that “the most pleasing compliment is copying me or mine…” I want to clone the most perfect man, Jesus or Paul, who understood Him so very well, and then be cloned by my children—then it must be a successful life.

P.S. The cost for cloning my children: average expenses from grade 1 through 12-$ 10,000/yr. college-$ 40,000/yr. plus extra expenses. It is far more than the amount my insane sister couple invested to clone their dog.