The first human clone, a healthy seven-pound girl named Eve, was born the day after Christmas, according to a religious sect that believes life on Earth was created by extraterrestrials 25,000 years ago.
While it offered no scientific evidence the birth actually took place, the claim by a company called Clonaid that it engineered such a feat opened a floodgate of debate on Friday over the ramifications of tampering with the basics of creating human life.
Adding to the tempest: The Raelian religious sect actually was in a race with two other organizations to see who could produce a child first.
The Raelians, who maintain cloning is the secret to eternal life, hope to have 20 more births in the next year. They said the first of those is due to be born next week in Europe to a North American couple, followed by three other babies to two Asian couples and a lesbian couple.
During a hastily arranged news conference on Friday in Hollywood, Brigitte Boisselier, CEO of Clonaid, a company founded by the Raelians in 1997 in the Bahamas, said Eve was born at 11:55 a.m. Thursday by Caesarean section.
Boisselier said proof that Eve is a genetic replica of her 31-year-old mother would come after an independent expert visits the mother and child next week to collect DNA samples, which will be taken to an independent lab for testing. The results should be available within nine days, she said.
Boisselier said “the parents are happy” and urged the media not to treat the baby as “a monster” or “something that is disgusting.”
Just the same, the fact the Raelians are involved in the experiment has generated enormous controversy.
DNA technology
Raelians believe cloning is the “downloading” of human consciousness into successive bodies. Their leader, Claude Vorilhon, a former French journalist and race car driver, started the movement after claiming to meet a space alien, who told him extraterrestrials have been working to perfect human DNA technology for tens of thousands of years.
Radio and television airwaves buzzed on Friday with callers questioning whether a true-life Frankenstein had been created.
Scientists expressed strong doubts while religious leaders voiced outrage, calling it, among other things, morally wrong.
“The proper stance here is a healthy skepticism,” said Kenneth Goodman, professor of bioethics at the University of Miami. “Even if it worked, it’s a study of one. You wouldn’t want to bet a whole science on it. It’s still a stretch and is not scientifically credible.”
Freelance reporter and physicist Michael Guillen, a former ABC News science editor, will coordinate the genetic tests using a medical expert of his choosing and an independent lab. He said he is not being paid by Clonaid andwould make the findings public when the analysis is finished.
“Scientists make all kinds of claims and often there’s no substantiation. I just want to have independent scientists evaluate it,” said Guillen, who has been writing about cloning since 1997.
In human cloning, the nucleus of a human egg is removed and replaced with the nucleus of a human cell. The egg then grows into an embryo, using the donor’s genes, and is planted in a womb.
To create Eve, the nucleus of a skin cell from the mother was implanted in her egg, Boisselier said, providing the DNA match. She noted this procedure did not take place in the United States, although she did not say where it occurred. She said the fact the news conference was in Hollywood beach had nothing to do with the location of the birth. Rather, it was because the Raelians had recently held a conference at the Holiday Inn there, Boisselier said.
Boisselier said Eve and her mother, whose name she did not disclose, were in a hospital and would go home Monday. She said Eve’s parents are U.S. citizens who have an older daughter from the wife’s previous marriage. The husband is infertile.
Legal questions
No U.S. laws directly prohibit human cloning. The Republican House in June approved a bill banning human cloning, but the Senate did not follow suit, fearing a total ban would hurt the potential for advancing medical research.
The Bush administration said it plans to make another attempt to pass a bill in the next session beginning in January.
The Food and Drug Administration, however, contends that since 1998 it has required prior permission to attempt human cloning.
On Friday, the FDA said it would investigate whether Clonaid violated any of its regulations. A fundamental question is whether the implantation took place in the United States, FDA officials said. The agency said if it finds a violation, one option could be “criminal prosecution.”
Clonaid has operated in various locations since its founding in the Bahamas in 1997. After the Bahamian government made cloning illegal, the group moved to an undisclosed U.S. location.
The company also has a subsidiary in South Korea, although the government there is moving to make cloning research illegal.
The company’s main funding was $500,000 from Mark Hunt, a West Virginia lawyer and former legislator. In 2001, he and his wife asked Clonaid to clone their 10-month-old son, who had died two years earlier. He has since severed ties with the company.
That year, FDA officials visited Clonaid’s West Virginia lab and ordered all cloning experiments to stop, spokeswoman Lenore Gelb said.
Clonaid began experimenting with human eggs in January and “had really good success really quickly,” Boisselier said.
Of 10 total implantations in this first round, five women miscarried, she said.
Boisselier identifies herself as a Raelian “bishop” and said the group’s leader, Rael, put her in charge of the cloning operation several years ago. She also is the mother of a 22-year-old daughter, who Boisselier hopes will become a surrogate mother.
Boisselier claims to possess two chemistry degrees but said she is not a specialist in reproductive medicine. She previously was marketing director for a chemical company in France.
She said Clonaid retains philosophical but not economic links to the Raelians. “I hope you won’t see my achievements as pretending I am God,” Boisselier said.
But that is what many area clergy thought she was doing.
The Catholic League decried the publicity given to the Raelians, a group it says “advocates cross burnings to protest Catholicism.”
Jewish leaders were equally troubled. “What are we tinkering with?” asked Rabbi Gerald Weiss of Beth Am Congregation in Boca Raton.
Bob Coy, pastor of Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale, called cloning “morally outrageous. We see God as the author and finisher of life.”
Staff Writers Robert Nolin, Bob Lamendola and William Gibson contributed to this report.
Ken Kaye can be reached at 954-385-7911 or .
