Dr Woo Suk Hwang disclosed to the world that he has successfully cloned an Afghan hound to produce a 100-day-old puppy named Snuppy. There was a photo of Snuppy and the adult male dog from whom his cells were taken. I almost referred to the larger, adult dog as his "father" when it occurred to me that this can't possibly be the correct terminology. What name ought be given to the animal from whom a cloned animal's cells first came?

I almost referred to the larger, adult dog as his "father" ... What name ought be given to the animal from whom a cloned animal's cells first came?

Patrione?

P.S. Would that make the first offspring patri2?

And so on:

patri3, patri4, patri5?

Untl, at last:

patri-infinitisimo?

Infinitisimutt?

progenitor?

A progenitor is a forefather, an ancestor, one who begets.

There is not a lot of begetting going on in cloning. The "gen" in progenitor is the same "gen" as in genitalia and there ain't no genitalia involved in cloning.

The original?

Putting those two thoughts together, how about the origenator ~ or perhaps for those who heartily disapprove of this process, the origenaterr?

Yeah, the gen in progenitor is from the same root as genitals but...its also found in a host of words about birth, beginnings, belong to by birth, and eventual being related to, such as:

genesis
generate
genus
germ
gender
gentile

there are specis of lizzard that reproduce by virtual cloning (paragenesis) but since were talking about a new process perhaps what is needed is a new term for the Host and clone(s).

>What name ought be given to the animal from whom a cloned animal's cells first came?

donor.

My first thought was the same as jj's. Anyway, one site had this to say: Dolly ... is a clone, an exact genetic replica of her donor "mother," a six-year-old female sheep.

Father Steve:

I would think we need a new word for such a new concept. There exists already the word doppelganger, which means literally the double goer in German. Why not coin two new wordsL

Einzelganger
and
Erstenganger.

The former would mean a living unit without a clone, and would mean literally a single goer.

The other word, erstenganger, would mean literally the first goer, and would specifically designate an original which had a clone.

Curly

Makes good sense Pat. And the clone would actually be a doppleganger. Are identical twins dopplegangers?

Regarding "...there ain't no genitalia involved in cloning" --

Precisely what I dislike about it....

Saranita! [HUG] We do have all kinds of ethical questions nowadays that were far outside the realm of possibility just a relatively short time ago: pick the gender of your child; having another woman actually bear your child. Though I guess most of the legal issues on that one are easing toward settling down. Should we clone high-yield, bug-resistant food plants? High-yield sheep or milk cows? These are not questions that I can answer. I personally cannot think of any "good" reason to clone a dog. I wonder if there is anyone who would genuinely want a cloned human? I am thinking of someone--maybe a parent?--who may be so distraught at the death of a loved one that they might want a clone (assuming that might ever become a real possibility)? To me, that would be just creepy. [shudder]
Speaking of "good" reasons: I also cannot think of ANY reason that *I would ever think it would be a good thing to clone a human. But I can see where other people might--neo-Nazis, for ex., might love it if a Hitler clone were to exist.
And none of what I've said has even touched on anything to do with religion, which would definitely throw (well, has done so, I reckon) a high-profile spanner into the works. As much as I've seen and heard about it, it still surprises me what people will use religion as a reason for; just a couple of days ago I saw on TV that groups in the U.S. use part(s) of the Bible as justification for polygamy; and different groups use other parts for other things, of course; to say nothing of all the extremist groups. [shaking head e]
The human race still has a long way to go, don't we?

I can see where other people might--neo-Nazis, for ex., might love it if a Hitler clone were to exist.

See Ira Levin, The boys from Brazil, New York: Random House, 1976.

Haven't read the book, but I saw the movie; scared me to death.

The book's better .. and predicated on the idea you mentioned.