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Clone experts scoff at baby claims
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Experts have cast doubt on claims of a second birth by a human cloning firm linked to the Raelian religious movement that professes a belief in UFOs. Clonaid chief executive Brigitte Boisselier said the second child, a girl, was born late on Friday to a Dutch lesbian couple. Last month the Las Vegas-based company said it had produced the first human clone, a girl called Eve who was born to a 31-year-old U.S. woman on December 26. Boisselier, a Raelian bishop and former French chemist, said the birth mother carried her own clone, which was born by natural childbirth. The mother plans to bring up the baby with her partner, she told Reuters. "I talked to them just a few hours ago, and they are very, very happy," she said on Saturday. "Everything is going fine, and the doctors with the little baby said everything was fine." But critics say Clonaid has no expertise in cloning and has offered no evidence to support the claims -- not even a photograph of the girls. The head of the Scottish institute that made history by cloning Dolly from an adult sheep in 1996, said the claims were probably bogus. Harry Griffin, of the Roslin Institute, told Reuters: "Clonaid have made claims of two births, but provided no evidence that either baby exists, no evidence from DNA tests, and as yet, therefore, there is no reason to believe this is anything other than a long, drawn out publicity stunt." (Full story) University of Wisconsin bioethicist Alta Charo said she suspected the Raelians -- who claim to have about 55,000 followers in the United States -- are pulling the world's leg. "In the absence of proof, there is no cloned baby," Charo told CNN. "Good science is not done this way. That's what a media circus is." In a related development, the New York Times reported Sunday that a former ABC News science editor had tried to sell exclusive coverage of the cloning to the major broadcast networks, but none accepted. (Full story) Clonaid was founded by the Raelian Movement, which was created in 1973 by former French journalist Claude Vorilhon, who now calls himself Rael. It is a religious group that believes aliens landed on Earth 25,000 years ago and started the human race through cloning. Rael -- who describes himself as a prophet -- argues that cloning is the key to eternal life. Cloning a human is forbidden in the Netherlands, but nothing in the law forbids the birth of a cloned baby, a spokesman for the Dutch Health Ministry told Reuters. Clonaid, which says it has a list of 2,000 people willing to pay $200,000 to have themselves or a loved one cloned, announced its breakthrough on December 27, saying four more cloned babies would be born by the end of January. Boisselier has refused to say where the first girl was born or where her "parents" live, saying only that it was outside the United States and the woman was a 31-year-old American. She said all of the parents have contracts with Clonaid stipulating that at some point they will submit to testing to verify the organisation's claims. But Eve's parents have postponed the tests since a Florida lawyer filed a lawsuit asking a state judge to appoint a legal guardian for the baby. "You have to understand, they are very afraid of what it going on," she said, adding, "I think they will do it soon, but we never know."
Charo said the testing would pose no risk to the child. "This is probably a matter of finding some way out of the publicity box they've gotten themselves into," she said. "One doesn't simply make an unsupported assertion and claim that proof will come later, then persist in denying people the opportunity to test the claim," she said. "This is not science. It's not even good journalism or public relations," she said. Boisselier said the second child Clonaid claims has been born "might be easier for the test than the first one," but said the tests may have to wait. She dismissed suggestions that the credibility of her claims would suffer if no proof is presented soon. "There have been scientists that told me that I was crazy to believe in the Raelian theory about the origin of life. My credibility has been detroyed for the last five years," she said. "So if it's destroyed for five or six more months, it doesn't matter to me." Both announcements have been met with widespread condemnation from politicians, scientists and religious leaders. Charo said Clonaid's pronouncements could lead to restrictions on therapeutic cloning research that could offer genuine medical breakthroughs. "Public policy may be made based on these outlandish claims," Charo said. "We have seen members of Congress move to write editorials in USA Today or make statements to the press. They plan to press forward with legislation that goes way beyond anything we need with regard to reproductive cloning and move toward banning research that uses the same techniques with no outcome." Asked last week whether his group was simply pulling a great publicity stunt, Rael, speaking to CNN from Canada via satellite, said his earpiece was having technical difficulties. "I am so sorry but the sound is so bad. I cannot hear anything," he said. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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