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Still no clone, and still on hungerstrike.... Saturday, 08 February 2003 Eric J. Lyman of the UPI writes about the cherry-red Ferrari driving Antinori that he still is on hungerstrike to see the Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi. And the promise that his ‘consortium’ would have their first cloned baby born in late January, obviously has vanished. Otherwise not much else added to this story. L. Ed. CellNEWS 02-08-03 Link: Italy: cloneless Antinori on hunger strike — UPI, 02/07/2003 Italian Police Investigating Alleged Cloning Doctor. Tuesday, 21 January 2003 AP reported yesterday that the Italian authorities are again investigating a fertility doctor who claims to have contributed to secret human cloning projects, according to a police official on Monday. Police began investigating Antinori more than two weeks ago at the request of Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia, a police official said on condition of anonymity. The official did not specify what the investigation was looking into. Italy's government has issued temporary bans on human cloning, while lawmakers have been working on passing a law to regulate artificial procreation. Antinori was threatening to begin a hunger strike Tuesday to protest the inquiry, his spokeswoman Marica Mongardi said. L. Ed. CellNEWS 01-21-03 Link: Italy Investigating Alleged Cloning Doc Antinori’s Cloning Consortium: I. The Scientific connections. Where will Antinori’s ‘clone baby’ be created? Sunday, 12 January 2003 A year ago, Severino Antinori summoned a group of fertility experts to a scientific meeting in Sabaudia on the western coastline, just south of Rome, Italy. He there constituted what he called the ‘World Association of Reproductive Medicine’. At first, this meeting could bee seen as a regular collection of about 50 IVF specialist’s, meeting and discussing the latest progress in artificial reproductive therapies or ART. However, this occasion had a special purpose – to assemble the worldwide IVF specialists Antinori had initiated and established collaboration with – to clone a human being. At this meeting were representatives mainly from Italy itself, but other main players come from such diverse countries as Israel, Ukraine, India, Iran, Australia and Russia. Other countries were also represented. Among these IVF specialists, a few individuals came from the US, Germany, Mexico and France. During the three and a half days the meeting lasted at the luxury resort, the participants discussed and educated each other about the latest improvements in the following areas: Micromanipulation of sperm end eggs; Womb and ovaries transplantation; Ultrastructural study of sperm and oocyte development; Optimal hormonal treatment for IVF; Ultrasound diagnostics techniques; Oocyte and embryo freezing; Laser-assisted hatching methods (which is important for blastocyst implantation success but also could be applied to preimplantation genetic diagnosis or PGD); Growth factors needed for early embryonic development; Evaluation of human blastocysts with various techniques (including DNA diagnostics); Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (or PGD) with reference to some well known conditions where this has bee practised already (like Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Anaemia in Sicily, and analyses of other genetic diseases as practised at the Hadassah University among the Jewish population). During these days at the Italian seaside resort, the group also spent two hours discussing legal, ethical, anthropological and human rights issues surrounding the issue of cloning a human being. Finally Antinori himself outlined some considerations where this group could agree on when and where cloning could be applied in a clinical setting. In a video taken at the meeting, Antinori said the following: "...but the application (of cloning) is a reality,".... there is "nothing strange, because there has been a lot of consideration, a lot of careful consideration, to perform cloning in human, to apply human cloning, in maybe one year or two years" ...However, there remain "... a lot of work to embark on." He also stated the public policy of the group: Not to tell about the cloning efforts to the general public. He said: because "....the international authorities are manipulated to think" in the way they do, ..... "for that (reason) I believe there is no reason to announce (a cloning) unless the international community changes and also the (view of) media communications changes...." The meeting lasted a full three and a half days, which is an extensive time for a scientific meeting today. I have presented this, a bit tedious, description of what was dealt with during this meeting, to show how meticulous and secretive this group is to achieve it’s primary goal – to be the first to clone a human being without any dialog about the ethics and medical risks for the cloned baby. So, where is the actual work to clone a human taking place? Well, from a simple analysis of the different people’s specialities and expertise and the sheer number of participants from each country, the most likely candidate countries are India, Ukraine and maybe even Iran. A forth possibility could be Israel. Of course there can be additional participants coming from some other country or region, like the recent rumour about Antinori’s first clone to be born in Serbia, participants which was not at this founding meeting in Italy last spring. But these kinds of rumours can as well be carefully planted misinformation to deceive the general public where the real cloning efforts are taking place. In a second article I will come back and present some of the players, other than Antinori, in this still covert operation. L. Ed. CellNEWS 01-12-03 More links to news articles. |
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