February 18 2001
BRITAIN
Cult scientists prepare to clone
human baby
Lois Rogers, Medical Correspondent
WORK begins next month on creating the world's first cloned
baby. It is intended to be given to a couple who want to
recreate their 10-month-old son who died in a hospital
operation.
The controversial process is being undertaken in America by a
secretive commercial organisation called Clonaid, registered in
the Bahamas.
A geneticist, a biochemist and an in-vitro fertilisation expert
have been commissioned to produce a genetic copy of the
dead baby.
The unnamed couple, described as deadly serious about their
ambition, have paid £300,000 to fund the work.
Clonaid has recruited 20 egg donors and 50 volunteer surrogate
mothers to carry the pregnancy. The clone will be created by
inserting the nuclei of cells from the dead baby into cell
"envelopes" from the egg donors.
The project leader is Brigitte Boisselier, a French-born
biochemist and scientific director of Clonaid. She has two
doctorates and teaches chemistry at Hamilton College in New
York state. She said the attempts at successful implantation
will begin shortly, with the intention that the first cloned baby
should be born by the end of the year. "For us the purpose of
this project is philosophical: to create eternal life," she said.
Clonaid is owned by the wealthy Raelian movement, a religious
cult which believes that all humans are cloned from a group of
alien scientists from another planet.
A South Korean team already claims to have created a human
cloned embryo, but nobody has attempted to implant it in a
woman. Animal cloning has produced huge numbers of
foetuses and offspring with gross abnormalities, and most
scientists have shied away from the inevitable condemnation
that would follow the creation of a deformed human baby.
Apart from cloning, the main preoccupation of Raelians is the
creation of an embassy to welcome aliens arriving on Earth.
Unlike Britain, America has no legal ban on cloning but
research has been hampered by a ban on the use of public
funds. The country's Food and Drug Administration is
monitoring the Raelian initiative.
Although some experts doubt whether the Raelians have the
expertise to achieve success, others say it is simply a
question of mathematical probability: 20 egg donors and 50
surrogate mothers would probably be enough.
The Raelians, who have 50,000 members worldwide including a
number in Britain, are conducting the project at a secret
location in America. Boisselier said 100 people have put their
names on the waiting list for treatment, including five British
couples, two of whom are homosexual. |
