The death of a beloved pet can be a traumatizing experience, and most people love their pets as they would any other member of their family. But would you pay $50,000 to clone a new version of your beloved pet from the DNA of the deceased? The lady in this clip didn't hesitate to head over to South Korea, shell out the cash and clone her deceased dog Trouble, and she seems to have no regrets about her decision.
It seems like a huge waste of money to me, considering that the cloned pet probably isn't going to have anything in common with it's genetic original beyond physical appearance, but what do you guys think? If you had $50k to spare, and you're grieving the passing of a pet, would you choose to have them cloned?
--via Videogum
I think the "essence" you speak of is more the personality of the creature that is a sum of it's life experiences.
Since no two animals have the exact same experiences in life their individual "essence" would not be the same.
Also I don't think science has figured out how to fix the short telomeres issue that caused Dolly to die of old age at half her expected life expectance. Clones that come from donor cells have the same length telemeres as the original at their current age and so will physically age at a accelerated rate to catch up to the orginal so that both of them die around the same time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzzCf6GUUB8