- Tokyo (AP) -- An American physicist who provoked controversy at home
by announcing plans to clone humans has found a haven for his research
where there is no law that bans what he wants to do.
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- Dr Richard Seed, who has three Harvard
degrees but no medical licence, announced yesterday he was preparing to
open an animal cloning laboratory and fertility clinic in Japan, both eventually
aimed at making clones.
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- "It seems all countries or political
groups have some reservations on human cloning. But there is an existing
patient demand for the service," he said.
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- In the United States, a five-year moratorium
announced by President Bill Clinton to ban cloning has apparently been
observed by most mainstream scientists, although Congress has failed to
act on legislation to outlaw the procedure.
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- In Japan, there has not been nearly as
much national debate about the ethics and safety of cloning as in the US
and elsewhere.
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- With a domestic cattle industry squeezed
by imports of cheaper beef, Japanese scientists and agricultural officials
see cloning as the answer to keeping the nation's small farms competitive
by genetically copying animals on a large-scale basis.
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- Already about US$15 million (HK$116 million),
or about 75 per cent of the estimated cost for Dr Seed's project, had been
raised, said James Ryan, a Tokyo-based consultant for the physicist.
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- The group has obtained land on Japan's
northernmost island of Hokkaido and expects to open its clinic as early
as next August.
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- Dr Seed's project will also provide treatment
for infertile couples in Japan, where most US-style treatments are not
yet available.
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- The physicist, who had earlier said he
was planning to clone himself, said he has changed his mind: "I switched
to a clone of my wife because people say if I clone myself it would be
an ego trip."
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- The cloning of his wife, Gloria, was
still in the research stage and would take about another two years before
completion, he said.
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- "The clone is an identical twin
of a donor, just 40 years younger," Dr Seed said.
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- "If you don't tell, nobody will
know. Everybody has seen children that look just like their parents."
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- From South China Morning Post via World
Net Daily
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