Back From the Dead: What Dog Cloning Means for Our Human Future

Good Morning America recently televised a world exclusive that caught many pet owners' attention: Dog cloning is now commercially available for people who want to bring their dead and dying companions back to life. Brought to you by BioArts International, a Northern California biotech startup, man and his dead best friend can now be, as the company's marketing slogan states, "Best Friends Again." And again. And again.

But it'll cost you. Rather than taking orders, BioArts will auction off five dog cloning slots in mid-June. Bids start at $100,000.

Despite Good Morning America's numerous awards for excellence in televised journalism, its coverage of this story was not its finest moment. A number of omissions and oversights led the segment to present dog cloning as a largely unproblematic way to deal with the grief of our pets' inevitable deaths. But several untold stories behind this story need to be put front and center.

The ABC morning show presented BioArts' CEO Lou Hawthorne as the next in a long line of pioneering Californian bio executives. But rather than being a new venture...