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More Articles:
Clone baby could be a hoax:
investigator – ABC Online, Australia, 01/06/2003
Clone testing overseer suspends effort
– CNN, 01/06/2003
'Clone' baby inquiry suspended
– BBC, 01/06/2003
More on this
side:
Guillen's statement
Still no testing of the baby
Comment on baby 'EVE'
First Cloned Baby EVE Is Born
Clonaid’s first baby? II
Clonaid’s first baby?
Antinori denies any statements from last week’s media reports
World's first cloned baby will be born in Belgrade?
World's first cloned baby ‘due in January’
The Race Is On. Who Will Be The First To Clone A Human?
Antinori Again Claim A Cloned Baby To Be Born Soon
Guillen's statement:
In a statement,
Michael Guillen, a former science editor for ABC-TV, said he had
assembled experts to do the work but suspended the effort Monday morning.
"The team of scientists has had no access to the alleged family
and, therefore, cannot verify firsthand the claim that a human baby has
been cloned," Guillen said.
"In other words, it's still entirely possible Clonaid's
announcement is part of an elaborate hoax intended to bring publicity to
the Raelian movement."
Guillen indicated he was still willing to proceed.
"When and if an opportunity to collect DNA samples as promised
does arise, however, the team stands fully prepared to re-mobilize and
conduct the necessary tests."
Guillen has said he had no connection to Clonaid. But he said in his statement
Monday he has been interested in doing a documentary on human cloning
that would involve Clonaid's work and that he's covered the "principal
players" in human cloning since the cloning of Dolly the sheep
was announced in 1997.
Still no testing of
the baby
Tuesday, 31 December 2002
Brigitte Boisselier, chief executive of Clonaid, told Reuters yesterday
she would not reveal whether the mother and the cloned child had arrived
in the United States out of concerns for their security.
"They are at home. They came home today ... I don’t want to
disclose anything about their home," she said.
"We are very concerned about (their security)," she
added. "We don’t want the parents to be bothered at any time ...
until they are ready."
"The baby is going home and once at home it is possible for an
independent expert to go there, and once a sample is taken we will
see," said Boisselier. "On Monday, if a sample is taken,
perhaps by the end of the week or early next week we should have all the
details," she further said, referring to genetic testing needed
to prove whether the child is really a clone.
On Sunday, Boisselier said a paediatrician again had seen the baby
and that she was "doing fine."
A little later, Boisselier told Reuters that the genetic testing was
scheduled for Tuesday.
"Hopefully it's going to be done tomorrow," she said. "At
least the (genetic) sampling should be done tomorrow. We're working on it
to make sure everything is going fine."
Boisselier said she was aware that some experts in the field had
questioned whether her company was capable of producing a clone and
others had called the claim a hoax.
"It's funny because they are insulting me each time they say
that," she said. "They won't say that to other
scientists", was her response.
However, the question remains why the baby wasn’t genetically tested
already when it still was in her mother’s womb. For the safety of the
baby and to know that no extraordinary disturbances in the DNA and
chromosomes had occurred it should have been done already long ago. And
that technique is frequently used during pregnancies. It shouldn’t have
been any technical problem to perform.
It’s all about money
Claude Vorilhon,
or Rael as he calls himself, said in an interview Clonaid has a list of
2,000 people willing to pay $200,000 to have themselves or a loved one
cloned, the Miami Herald reported.
"It’s a
commercial company and her goal is to make as much
money as possible, and I hope she will make as much money as
possible," Vorilhon said of Boisselier.
"It’s a very
beautiful step, but it’s just a step," Vorilhon, 56, told the
Herald, referring to the alleged cloning of Eve. "The ultimate
goal is to give eternal life to humanity through cloning."
"The problem is that you have men of today with tomorrow’s
technology and yesterday’s philosophy," he said.
"People are lost and misguided by primitive religions ... they
are trying to slow down science. Nothing can stop science."
"We don’t expect Mr. Guillen to become available for comment
until everyone knows indeed whether or not this is a genuine clone,"
said an employee of a New York publicist that represents Michael Guillen,
journalist and the self-proclaimed guarantee of an independent genetic
testing of the child 'Eve'.
L.
Ed.
CellNEWS
02-12-31
Baby arrives home for clone testing
- MSNBC and AP, Dec. 30, 2002
2,000 on clone waiting list, Raelian
group's leader says – Miami Herald, Dec. 30, 2002
Top
Editorial
Short comment on the baby
clone 'EVE', the cloned Raelian 'goddess'.
Sunday, 29 December 2002
I don’t find anything to celebrate this day.
I don’t see any positive coming out of this ‘performance’:
- not for the newly born child, which have to grow up with
unknown errors and deliberately imposed deformities,
disabilities, hidden future diseases and degenerative processes;
- not on the ‘darkened’ prelude to obtain this result – if
it is true – since Brigitte Boisselier said in an earlier interview
she had needed 300 ‘training’ embryos to perfect the technique and 5
out of 10 of the implanted embryos died during gestation;
- not for medical science since this will only further
restrict and push back the attempts to find cures for severe
debilitating diseases through therapeutic cloning;
- and not for man or mankind either, since it once again
only show how ego and quest for fame and fortune is put in front of
the wellbeing of this poor, newly born, and unprotected cloned
child.
And at the press conference: No proof. No DNA analysis, not even a baby
picture to show!
It is somewhat strange, that Clonaid and BB haven't already tested the
baby's DNA!
It could easily have been done on the unborn baby, as is often done
already if you expect some deleterious genetic disease from any of the
parents. It is really not more difficult than doing it now after the
birth! And they could have done it already months and months ago! Just
take out and analyse some amniotic fluid cells.
And in this case, I think it should have been done anyway, as early as
possible, when they claim its a clone.
What a show!
Something is fishy about this.......
This could really be a modern version of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’!
L.
Ed.
CellNEWS
02-12-29
Top
Update: 02-12-27
First Cloned Baby EVE
Is Born
Clonaid’s
first cloned baby: Fake or real?
From:
The AP, Reuters, WTVJ in FL, Miami Herald and Sun-Sentinel in FL.
Friday, 27 December
2002, 3:57PM GMT
A 7-pound baby girl born Thursday to a 31-year-old American woman is the
world's first human clone, a chemist connected to a group that believes
life on Earth was created by extraterrestrial claimed today. The baby
girl has been named Eve.
The baby was born Thursday, said Brigitte Boisselier, head of Clonaid,
the company that claimed success in the project. She wouldn't say where
the baby was born.
"I'm very very pleased to announce that the first baby clone is
born," said Boisselier.
"She was born yesterday at 11:55 a.m.".
She said the baby is a clone of the American woman who donated the DNA
for the cloning process. If confirmed, that would make the child an exact
genetic duplicate of her mother.
A Clonaid spokeswoman, Nadine Gary, said the baby had been born outside
the United States, but she declined to say exactly where.
Boisselier, who spoke at a Friday morning news conference, did not
immediately present DNA evidence showing a genetic match between mother
and daughter however. That omission leaves her claim scientifically
unsupported.
The press conference was only attended by a select group of invited
journalists and regarded as ‘private’.
"It is very important to remember that we are talking about a
baby," she said.
"The baby is very healthy. She is fine, she doing fine,"
Boisselier said.
"We're very happy parents. The parents are happy. I hope that you
remember them when you talk about this baby, not like a monster, like
some results of something that is disgusting. "
"I saw them change. I saw them becoming so happy with the birth
coming, and yesterday I can tell you it was the best day of their life. I
wished them a very happy life," she said.
She says the baby's grandmother thinks Eve looks just like her mother.
She said the mother also was doing fine and had resorted to cloning
because her mate was infertile.
She said the baby will go home in three days, and an independent expert
will take DNA samples from the baby to prove she had been cloned. Those
test results are expected within a week after the testing. She said the
mother carried to term.
Boisselier said that Clonaid plans to open clinics for the procedure used
at least one on each continent. She also said that there are several
other pregnancies with cloned children right now, including one in North
America, one in Europe and two in Europe.
She said that a woman in a lesbian relationship is carrying the baby in
Europe, and that two of the projects involve clones of children whose
cells were taken before they died.
"You can still go back to your office and treat me as a fraud,"
she said. "You have one week to do that."
Michael Guillen, a physicist and former science editor for ABC News, who
said he is now a freelance journalist, said that he would work with an
independent team of scientists to verify the claim.
In Rome, fertility doctor Severino Antinori, who said weeks ago he had
engineered a cloned baby boy who would be born in January, dismissed
Clonaid's claims and said the group has no scientific credibility.
The news "makes me laugh and at the same time disconcerts me,
because it creates confusion between those who make serious scientific
research" and those who don't, Antinori said.
"We keep up our scientific work, without making
announcements," he added.
"I don't take part in this ... race."
Dr. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, the Massachusetts company
that last year produced the first reported cloned human embryo, said
Clonaid has "no scientific credibility at this point."
"They may be able to bypass many of the problems that we would
encounter in the lab," he said.
He said his work has found that implanting a very early stage cloned
embryo in an animal's uterus can be successful, while trying to grow the
embryo in the lab is more difficult.
L.
Ed.
CellNEWS
02-12-27
Scientist claims to have produced first
human clone – Sun-Sentinel, FL, 12/27
Company Claims First Cloned Human Born
– NBC6.net,
WTVJ, FL, 12/27
Scientist claims to produce human clone
– Miami Herald, and AP, 12/27
Scientists clone human baby
– Miami Herald, 12/27
Top
Clonaid’s first baby? II
Friday, 27 December
2002, 02:37:05AM GMT
This year, three groups — a fertility clinic in Italy, an embryology
laboratory business in Kentucky, USA and the Raelians — announced
separately that they were on the verge of overseeing the births of cloned
humans. A few weeks ago Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, the scientific director
of Clonaid, said she had five clone pregnancies under way and the first
birth was expected before 2003.
Dr. Boisselier, is now scheduled to make the announcement on Friday at 09:00
AM EST. at the Holiday Inn beachfront hotel on Hollywood beach,
HOLLYWOOD, South Florida.
A Holiday Inn employee told reporters at the site, a "cloning
conference" was scheduled at the hotel this morning but said
there was very little information about it.
Nadine Gary, Dr. Boisselier's spokeswoman, said that Clonaid
representatives intend to have video equipment at the announcement and
would have an ''independent
inspector'' take DNA evidence from baby and mother.
Neither mother nor child will be at the news conference "for
medical reasons," Ms. Gary told The New York Times.
Dr. Boisselier's spokeswoman, Nadine Gary, would give out little
information but said the baby had been born by Caesarean section on
Thursday and was a clone of the woman who gave birth to her.
"We are very happy. It’s a triumph," Clonaid spokeswoman
Nadine Gary said earlier.
It should be relatively easy, using the same type of DNA tests that are
used in court, to prove that a child is a duplicate of his father or her
mother. However, an independent test would be crucial to prove that the
announcement is not a hoax.
Ms. Gary said Dr. Boisselier "would verify the DNA fingerprint of
the baby" and had "been speaking to an independent
inspector who would make the proof."
Last July, the South Korean government launched an investigation of
BioFusion Tech, a local company associated with Clonaid, after it claimed
to have impregnated a South Korean woman with a cloned human embryo.
At the time, a BioFusion spokesman told the British Broadcasting Co. that
the woman was two months into her pregnancy. The woman reportedly fled
Korea, but there has been no further word on her.
In the US, legally there is very little to stop scientists from cloning. In
January, the National Academy of Sciences recommended a ban on human
cloning, but only four states — California, Michigan, Louisiana and Rhode
Island — ban any type of reproductive cloning research.
The FDA claims it has jurisdiction over human cloning based on the Public
Health Service and Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. It says it would regulate
the cloning process like a drug.
Dr. Boisselier, who claims two chemistry degrees and previously deputy
director of research at the Air Liquide Group, a French producer of
industrial and medical gases. Now she identifies herself as a Raelian "bishop"
and said Clonaid retains philosophical but not economic links to the Raelians.
She is not a specialist in reproductive medicine. Dr. Boisselier also
teaches chemistry at Hamilton College in upstate New York.
The cloning process involves extensive "reprogramming of the
genetic code". But in cloned cows, pigs and mice, we don't know
if their behaviour is normal because we cannot test their mental
abilities.
The big problem is to ensure that ALL the genes after this transfer work
properly, performing the dazzlingly complex business, which is the making
of tissues and biochemical pathways during the embryo's growth and all
the way through adolescence and adult life.
The typical success rate of cloning animals is so far about 2 percent.
"So one would have to have at least 50 such operations,"
said George Seidel, a researcher at Colorado State University who has
cloned cattle.
Also, Dr. Seidel said, cloned animals have a high rate of unexplained defects,
including malformed kidneys, hearts and lungs, and often die within days
of birth.
"Ten percent abnormalities might be acceptable for cloning
cows," he said. "But it's completely unacceptable for
human children."
L.
Ed.
CellNEWS
02-12-27
Raelian group claims birth of first
human clone – CTV, Canada, 12/27
Birth of girl through cloning:
Scientist – Times of India, India, 12/27
Cult claims cloned human birth
– Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, 12/27
Cult says it has first human clone
– ABC Online, Australia, 12/27
Clone baby birth claim
– The Australian, Australia, 12/27
Clone baby birth claim
– Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia, 12/27
Cult says it has first human clone
– ABC Online, Australia, 12/27
Clone baby birth claim
– The Australian, Australia, 12/27
Clone baby birth claim
– News Interactive, Australia, 12/27
Chemist Promises News on Cloning Effort
– Yahoo Headlines, 12/26
Top
Update: 02-12-19
Clonaid’s first baby?
Are they trying to clone a
new female Christ?
Thursday, 19
December 2002, 10:46 PM GMT
In an interview with Canadian CTV and to Reuters, Brigitte Boisselier,
a bishop in the Raelian sect, said yesterday that their company, Clonaid,
cloned a human embryo last March and a baby girl is expected to be
delivered within the next two weeks and possibly on Christmas Day. The
baby will be born via caesarean section at an undisclosed facility,
Clonaid said.
"We are well advanced and the first baby is due for the end of
this year. We think it will be a healthy baby," Boisselier told
Reuters.
She said 10 human embryos were cloned last spring, with five miscarrying.
The four other cloned babies are expected next year. She said the company
perfected its technique after practising on 300 embryos. They also plan
to implant another 20 cloned embryos next month.
The cloning was performed by fusing a cell from the woman with one of her
own eggs, from which the nucleus had been removed, and then implanted
into the uterus of the woman being cloned, Boisselier explained.
"The baby has developed very normally and has been followed
closely. We are not talking about a monster but about a baby desired by
her parents," Boisselier said.
CTV said the company, Clonaid, has given the rights to film the
development in the next two weeks to an American film production company
and that it will be allowed to do the blood testing — the DNA
fingerprinting — to see if this is a clone.
This indicates they don’t have that capacity — to test the embryo or born
child with DNA techniques. It is possible that they have accomplished
what they claim to have done. But the only way to prove it will be to get
DNA from the baby and match it with the donor. And if they do match, the
baby is a clone of that donor.
L.
Ed.
CellNEWS
02-12-19
Quebec group claims human clone days
away – CTV, Canada, 12/18
Canadian Sect Says First Cloned Baby
Due in Weeks – Reuters, 12/19
Top
Update: 02-12-16
Antinori denies any
statements from last week’s media reports
Monday, 16 December
2002, 11:13 AM GMT
In a brief email statement to CellNEWS,
Antinori’s secretary at Raprui denies any statements allegedly said by
him and as reported last week in the German weekly Die Zeit and by AFP.
This is the usual disclosure/denial theatre Antinori seems to play, and
which make it so difficult and impossible to believe anything of what he
might have said. Truly poor PR communication!
L.
Ed.
CellNEWS
02-12-16
Update: 02-12-14
World's first cloned
baby will be born in Belgrade?
From AFP,
Die Zeit, News Interactive-Australia and Al-Ahram Weekly
Saturday, 14 December 2002
The worlds first cloned baby will be born in Belgrade in January,
controversial Italian gynaecologist Severino Antinori said in an
interview in the Serbian weekly Nin.
"I think we have made a revolution in the field of genetics and
Serbia will be one of three countries which will go down in
history," Antinori was quoted as saying.
"When the time comes you will be informed about the birth and the
family," said the doctor, who spent the past week in Belgrade
for a seminar on sterilisation and artificial insemination.
The paper, which said it followed Antinori's movements during his stay in
Belgrade, said it followed him to the private Belgrade artificial insemination
clinic Papic. However, Antinori had declined to confirm if the cloned
baby would be born at the Papic clinic.
According to the Cairo based Al-Ahram Weekly, Antinori this week also
repeated the claim that the first cloned human will be of Arab offspring,
as he already had told in April to Giancarlo Calzolari, a friend and
science reporter at Il Tempo newspaper in Rome.
L.
Ed.
CellNEWS
02-12-14
Top
Update: 02-11-26
World's first cloned
baby ‘due in January’
From DPA,
Reuters and AP
Tuesday, 26 November 2002
The controversial Italian fertility expert Severino Antinori is again
claiming that the world's first cloned baby will be born at the beginning
of January 2003. Antinori said on Tuesday at a press conference in Rome
that a woman pregnant with a cloned embryo was due to give birth in
January, but declined to give any other details about her.
Antinori would not reveal the location or nationality of the woman or the
cloned person, but said the male foetus is in the 33rd week of pregnancy.
An ultra-sound scan showed the foetus currently weighed 2.5 to 2.7 kg
(5.5 to 5.9 pounds) and was "absolutely healthy".
"We are only interested in using this technique to treat male
infertility," he said Tuesday.
"It's going well. There are no problems," Antinori told the
news conference.
"Our scans tell us that the child weighs between 2.5 and 2.7
kilograms. Everything leads us to believe that there is a 90 to 95 per
cent chance of everything going well."
Antinori said two other cloned babies would be born around five weeks
later and were also in good health. He said no signs of deformities were
present and that his team had noticed "no differences between
these pregnancies and ordinary ones."
He further added that he had made a "scientific and cultural
contribution" to the project but was not personally in charge of
the pregnancy. Antinori declined to provide any additional details,
arguing that he was doing so to protect his project from rival scientists
and inquisitive authorities. A patent would be submitted soon, he said.
Many in the scientific community have challenged Antinori’s statements in
the past that women have been pregnant with cloned babies. This time, at
the news conference, he produced no evidence either for his claims.
Earlier this year, Antinori announced that the human cloning programmes
were under way in Russia and China. For example, he said in April that
three women were pregnant with clones, one in her 10th week, one in her
seventh and one in her sixth. He declined at the time to say where any of
the trio were, disclosing only that one lived in an Islamic nation.
He said Tuesday that the oldest of these was about to be born. However,
according to his statement in April, the longest pregnancy would have
passed nine months in mid-November. Antinori would not explain the
discrepancy on Tuesday.
He has also refused to say where the infant will be born, saying only
that they were in different countries belonging to "the same
geographical area and where this is permitted"
Most doctors and scientists reject human reproductive cloning as
irresponsible, saying the risk of creating deformed or sick babies is too
great – at least at the present time - and that it poses unanswered
ethical questions and dilemmas.
L.
Ed.
CellNEWS
02-11-27
Top
Update: 02-10-22
Times of India claim today that Antinori’s first cloned baby is about to
be born. However, as usual, it is impossible to say if this is a credible
story or not, and no other details are given either.
Cloned
human about to be born, claims Antinori
Source: Times of India, India – 10/21
The would-be pioneer of cloned humans, Severino Antinori, says the
first of his creations is about to be born at a secret location.
It is more than nine months since his three first alleged cloned
pregnancies began, but British embryologists agree that the maverick
Italian gynaecologist could have succeeded.
Last spring Antinori said that he had obtained eggs from 100 women
patients and had subjected them to genetic reprogramming — effectively
cloning, where the egg nucleus is replaced by a nucleus from one of the
male partner’s cells.
...........
The Race Is On. Who Will
Be The First To Clone A Human?
Sunday, 14 July 2002
According to a Swedish newspaper report today, the Raelian group, with Brigitte
Boisselier, claim they have cloned 50 human embryos and put them into
surrogate mothers. According to the report, they will only let ONE
of these go to full term, the rest – 49 – will be terminated by abortion
sometime during the pregnancies. This massive attempt of cloning a human
is performed in co-operation with the South Korean company BioFusion Tech, and
should have been presented at the 1st International Bio
Expo, 10~12 JULY, in Tokyo, Japan.
The newspaper refer to a Kenny
Stolpe, Swedish high representative of the Raelian movement, as
to have said:
"Everyone (all 50 surrogate mothers, ed. note) is going to
get pregnant with identical embryo’s, but only one will be allowed to go
to full term."
"They only want one baby, but of course there is a margin of
error. Therefore they have to make a selection. The others will be
aborted".
Also at Clonaid’s
Webpage of it is stated that "Will Present Some Of Its Results In
Cloning A Human Being At The 1st International Bio Expo Japan",
but no further information is presented there.
I have not yet been able to find any other, independent reports about
this.
Top
Antinori Again Claim A Cloned Baby To Be Born Soon.
Sunday, 14 July 2002
The first human created by cloning is scheduled to be born in December,
controversial Italian doctor Severino Antinori said in an interview with
the French newspaper Libération on Friday.
Antinori said that 50 couples unable to conceive because of masculine
infertility had volunteered for his cloning programme.
"I transferred 18 embryos created by cloning, and I obtained one
pregnancy," he said. "The foetus has a good
morphology."
With the embryo created by using tissue from the father, the child will
presumably be his exact genetic duplicate, and his twin, if male.
The interview was said to have taken place in the beginning of July at
the 18th annual meeting of the European Society of Human
Reproduction and Embryology held in Vienna. At the time the foetus
was in its fifteenth week, making a December birth likely if the
pregnancy is carried to term.
Antinori refused to divulge the identity of the parents, saying only that
the baby would not be born in Italy.
In the Liberation interview, Antinori defended his work with cloning by
saying that "the technique could enable men without any
spermatozoids, with no sex cells, to have a child".
He claimed that 120 million men around the world currently suffered from
this form of sterility.
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