- A free-love Canadian cult, whose members believe they
were cloned by aliens, claims to have received £350,000 from an
American
couple to clone their 10-month-old daughter, who died last year.
-
- The couple, says the cult, has given skin cells from
their daughter to scientists who say they can produce her clone by the
end of this year. The French doctor leading the experiment on behalf of
the Raelian Movement has persuaded her own daughter to carry the cloned
embryo in her uterus. The claims point to a future of uncontrolled cloning
laboratories operating in America. Human cloning is not yet banned in the
United States.
-
- The Raelian Movement was founded by a French singer and
former sportswriter, Claude "Rael" Vorilhon, the author of a
1974 book titled The message given to me by extraterrestrials. He believes
he was kidnapped by aliens, cloned and his clone returned to earth. He
claims that his group has 50,000 members, mainly in Quebec.
-
- In 1997, the Raelians announced that they were setting
up Clonaid, a biotechnology firm that will fund cloning projects not
authorised
by governments on scientific and ethical grounds. They believe that over
time, cloning will become as common as in-vitro fertilisation.
-
- Earlier claims by the group that they had more than 100
mainly homosexual couples ready to pay for cloned babies and more than
£1 million in backing have never been verified. Now, the group
refuses
to name the couple who have given their dead daughter's cells, saying only
that they are in their thirties and still able to have more children
naturally.
-
- Critics of the group say it is using the issue of cloning
simply to raise its own profile. Clonaid's rate card offers human cloning
for £130,000 and a service called Insuraclone for £33,000 which
will sample and store human cells to create a clone if that person dies.
In cases where there are genetic diseases, the cult promises it will not
clone someone until their genes can be repaired.
-
- An additional service, Clonapet, which will clone
favourite
pet animals, is said to be in the pipeline. The technique Clonaid plans
to use for the child is that used for Dolly the sheep, the first animal
clone. It is called somatic cell nuclear transfer and involves using an
electrical charge to fuse the cells of the dead child to an egg cell
stripped
of its genetic properties.
-
- This then grows into an embryo which is implanted in
the uterus of a surrogate mother. Clonaid claims to have more than 50 women
available as surrogates for cloned embryos. Among them is Marina Cocolios,
22, the daughter of Brigitte Boisselier, Clonaid's scientific
director.
-
- Dr Boisselier, who is French, is a bishop in the Raelian
Movement, with a background in chemical gas research rather than
biotechnology.
"I am very sure about what I'm doing," Miss Cocolios, a fine
arts student, told the New York Post. "These people want the DNA of
that first baby to have the chance to fully express itself and I want to
help give that chance."
-
- The Raelians have a quasi-Christian aspect to their
creed.
They believe that life on earth was created by aliens called Elohim, a
Hebrew word mistranslated in the Bible as "God". They believe
Jesus's resurrection was a cloning performed by the Elohim.
-
-
- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
-
-
-
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|