The First Human Baby Clone

Friday, 27 December, 2002, 16:11 GMT
Cloned baby birth claim



Advocates argue cloning can help infertile couples

A controversial company linked to a philosophical sect says that it has produced the world's first cloned human baby.
However, the announcement has been viewed with deep scepticism by the scientific community at large - and no proof has so far been put forward.

At a press conference, Clonaid claimed the birth of a healthy cloned baby girl, nicknamed Eve by scientists, who was born by Caesarian section yesterday to a 31-year-old US mother.

The location of the claimed birth has been kept secret.

"She is a very healthy baby" Brigitte Boisselier, Clonaid


The DNA to be cloned was taken from the mother's skin cell, Clonaid said.

The scientist leading Clonaid's efforts, Dr Brigitte Boisselier, said she was "celebrating a scientific success."

She said another clone baby was due in northern Europe next week, and three others shortly afterwards.

Two of the expected babies were, she said, copies of dead children made using preserved cells.

She said said five other implantation attempts had ended in miscarriage.

The company insists that independent scrutiny and DNA testing of mother and child would be allowed in "eight or nine days".

'No monster'

Dr Boisselier is former deputy director of research at the Air Liquid Group, a French producer of industrial and medical gasses.

She told a news conference:

"Science can be used for the best and the worst. I believe that this is the best.

"I hope that you remember them when you talk about this baby, not like a monster, not like some results of something that is disgusting. She is a very healthy baby."

Clonaid is linked to a sect called the Raelians, whose founder Claude Vorihon, describes himself as a prophet and calls himself Rael.

Dr Patrick Dixon, an expert on the ethics of human cloning, described the news as "totally inevitable".

He said: "There's a global race by maverick scientists to produce clones, motivated by fame, money and warped and twisted beliefs."

Race

The Raelians believe humans are the result of a genetic engineering project run by super intelligent extra-terrestrials.

Clonaid is viewed sceptically by most scientists who doubt their ability to clone a human.

Cattle, mice and sheep and some other animals have been cloned with mixed success.

But some animals have shown defects as they age - scientists fear the same could happen with humans.

Clonaid has been racing against the Italian fertility doctor Severino Antinori to produce the first cloned baby.

Antinori has claimed that one of his patient's will give birth to a cloned baby in January.

Antinori rubbished Clonaid's claims, saying they were "not substantiated on a scientific basis" and "only risks engendering confusion".

Proof

She said that the company would eventually allow independent scientists to check the baby's cells to verify that she was a true clone.

Dr. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, the Massachusetts company that last year produced the first reported cloned human embryo, said Clonaid had "no scientific credibility at this point."
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Reminds me of the X-Files episode "Eve." Hoax or not, natural born babies are on the way of extinction. Enter the new race. Scary?

news.bbc.co.uk...





[Edited on 27-12-2002 by Doomsday]

Sorry doomsday. When I did my topic, I didn't know that you had already did your.

omg this soo wrong but they still have to prove that its real they have given cloning a bad name it was good when it is for new organs for transplants but entire ppl???

Clones and aliens...

A baby named Eve


[[SHUDDERS]]

[Edited on 12-28-2002 by William One Sac]

I think its BS...no proof..

You ask your self this..if you pulled this off as a scientist..would you come to the world stage with out even a Pciture..how about birthweight..any thing..any thing at all..this goes agasint every scientific way of thinking known..i think this chick is a just trying to grab some fame...I know that if i did this..i would be passing out videos..i think any REAL scientist would..

Boomslang

Uhhh...

Not saying it's true or anything. But maybe they are with holding information due to so much negative response by the majority toward's cloning human's... I know I would...

disturbing, to say the least. too many risks are involved with the idea of human cloning, and so many terrible things can result from it. and god knows what this will lead to in the future. i can almost see 50,000 richard simmons clones taking over the world and brainwashing the population. but that's just me.

Ugh!!!

Thanx for the image

Actually Ultra_Phoenix, it was my bad. I did not notice your post, which was before mine, when I posted mine. Sorry!

Vatican slams 'brutal' clone claim

ROME, Italy (CNN) --The claim that a cloned child has been born in an undisclosed country displays a "brutal mentality" lacking "ethical consideration," a Vatican spokesman has said.

Joaquin Navarro-Valls joined a rising chorus of condemnation on Saturday over the announcement by Clonaid, a company founded by followers of a religious sect, that claims extraterrestrials created human life by genetic engineering.

"The announcement without any element of proof has already raised the scepticism and the moral condemnation of the greater part of the international scientific community," Navarro-Valls said.

"The announcement itself is the expression of a brutal mentality that lacks any kind of human and ethical consideration."

The leader of the group -- the Raelian Movement -- has dismissed ethical concerns as "an accumulation of religious prejudices" and called the process a step toward immortality.

Former French journalist Claude Vorilhon, who calls himself Rael, claims to be a descendant of the extraterrestrials who created human life on Earth.

The announcement of the birth of a seven-pound girl named Eve -- allegedly the cloned child of a 31-year-old woman -- was met with doubt and concern, since other cloned mammals have had serious birth defects or developed health problems later.

But in an interview with CNN Rael dismissed the concerns.

"This is a beautiful day for humanity -- the creation of life," he said. "I don't understand ethical -- the word ethic is just an accumulation of religious prejudices."

He said he has "no doubt" that Eve "will be perfectly healthy."

"Everybody in the world now is crazy about what if the child has a problem. What if? I say, what if the child is perfectly healthy and beautiful? I think opponents to cloning are more afraid of that than of the faults," he added.

Brigitte Boisselier, the chief executive officer of the Raelian-founded company and a Raelian bishop, said Eve was created using DNA from the mother's skin cells and is a genetic twin of her mother.

A group of independent scientists has been picked by freelance journalist and physicist Michael Guillen to check the group's claim. Results are expected in eight to nine days, he said.

"The best proof that we can have is probably the grandmother, who said she looked just like the mother," Boisselier announced Friday at a news conference in Florida.

To make a clone, scientists first take an egg and remove its genetic material. Then the nucleus of a cell -- any cell in the body -- is taken from the individual to be cloned and inserted into the hollowed-out egg.

The cell is then given a jolt of electricity or put in a chemical bath to activate cell division -- essentially tricking the cell into doing what a fertilized egg would normally do. Then the embryo is implanted into the uterus of a woman, who carries the baby to term.

Rael said cloning a baby is "just the first step" in a process that will eventually lead to human immortality by transferring consciousness into cloned bodies.

"Your personality, your memory -- everything recalled in your brain -- you download it when you die in an adult cell, an adult clone of yourself, and then you can have eternal life through different bodies," he said.

Boisselier said four other cloned babies are expected to be born by February. The next is expected next week.

Friday's announcement prompted a wave of condemnation from scientists -- including one who leads a rival cloning project -- as well as religious organisations and the White House.

"Without any scientific data, one has to be very, very skeptical," said Dr. Robert Lanza, the head of medical and scientific development for the private genetic research firm Advanced Cell Technologies.

"This is a group again that has no scientific track record, never published a single scientific paper in this area," Lanza said. "They have no research experience in this area. In fact, they have never even cloned a mouse or a rabbit."

Earlier attempts at cloning animals such as mice, pigs and sheep have led to a high rate of stillbirths or premature death, said Art Caplan, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist.

Caplan said he worries that "We're going to create a lot of dead and sick children."

In January, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences recommended a ban on human cloning in America, but only four states -- California, Michigan, Louisiana and Rhode Island -- ban any type of cloning research.

U.S. White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said President George W. Bush "believes like most Americans that human cloning is deeply concerning, and he strongly supports legislation banning human cloning."

The U.S.-based Christian Coalition has condemned the announcement, calling Eve "an aberration" and urging a human cloning ban.

Panos Zavos, a former professor at the University of Kentucky, also has announced plans to clone a human but has yet to successfully create an embryo.

And Italian embryologist Dr. Severino Antinori has said several times in recent months that a woman was carrying a human clone, due to be born in January.

Zavos has also discounted Clonaid's claim, calling the announcement "nothing but words."

Find this article at:
www.cnn.com...

Who cares what the "Vatican" says? There a country with no land, not even accepted in the UN! About the clones though, we all here knew it was inevitable. Come on, don't say you didn't think that. I am sure that there will be some complications later on in life with this child. Nobody has perfected the process of cloning.... yet. Let the truth be told. And you know why I think they're freaks? Because we have a wonderful community here, and we aren't doing any of that schizer... (I think that is how you spell it..)

I don't like cloning.Having another me in this world will make me even more paranoid than I am now.

I don't think such things will bring the world to its knees.

Cloneing organs is, however, quite good.

i can't believe this got no flags ~!!

First Human being CLONED~! at least according to BBC

reply to post by Komodo


That could be because we didn't have stars or flags back in 2002 when this was posted.

Reply to post by Komodo

Um.....yeah. Even if we did have stars and flags back then everyone who clicked them would have to feel like an idiot by now. This cloning thing never happened, it was total bs and anyone with half a brain could tell this within seconds just based on how the shady organization presented it.

The fact that years later you still have people too ignorant to understand reality makes me wee for the future of ats. It seems despite to goal of denying ignorance we just get more ignorant around here every day.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Originally posted by defcon5
reply to post by Komodo

 

That could be because we didn't have stars or flags back in 2002 when this was posted.

ahh.. )

Originally posted by MainLineThis
Reply to post by Komodo

 

Um.....yeah. Even if we did have stars and flags back then everyone who clicked them would have to feel like an idiot by now. This cloning thing never happened, it was total bs and anyone with half a brain could tell this within seconds just based on how the shady organization presented it.

The fact that years later you still have people too ignorant to understand reality makes me wee for the future of ats. It seems despite to goal of denying ignorance we just get more ignorant around here every day.

 

Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

 

well this is of note.. is it NOT ~!

Dr Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, the Massachusetts company that last year produced the first reported cloned human embryo, said Clonaid had "no scientific credibility at this point".

and to note as well..

United States In 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007, the United States House of Representatives voted whether to ban all human cloning, both reproductive and therapeutic.

Each time, divisions in the Senate over therapeutic cloning prevented either competing proposal (a ban on both forms or reproductive cloning only) from passing. On Mar 10, 2010 a bill (HR 4808) was introduced with a section banning federal funding for human cloning.[14]

Such a law, if passed, would not prevent research from occurring in private institutions (such as universities) that have both private and federal funding. There are currently no federal laws in the United States which ban cloning completely, and any such laws would raise difficult Constitutional questions similar to the issues raised by abortion.

Thirteen American states (Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Iowa, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, North Dakota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Virginia) ban reproductive cloning and three states (Arizona, Maryland, Missouri) prohibit use of public funds for such activities.[15]

Wikipedia_Clone Law