Clonaid

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Raëlian

♠ Main Articles ♠

Raëlian Church
Raëlism
History of Raëlism

♣ Philosophy ♣

Sensual Meditation
Raelian cosmology

♥ Advocacy ♥

Honorary Guides
Raelian Foundation
Geniocracy
Clonaid
Humanitarianism (Economic)

♦ List of Raëlians ♦

Raël
Glenn Carter
Nayah

"Clonaid" is the alias for a self-described "human cloning company" associated with the Raëlian Movement (though not in a financial sense), which sees cloning as part of the path to immortality.

There are scientists in the field, noting the high incidence of malformations and fetal deaths in animal cloning, have condemned Clonaid for premature human experimentation. Clonaid's stance on this subject is that the same problems are true of animal In vitro fertilisation (IVF), while assisted reproduction in humans has come a long way since the first test-tube baby in 1978.

1 Claims of success in human cloning
- 1.1 RMX 2010
- 1.2 Statements by Raël
2 Skepticism about cloning claims
- 2.1 Lack of evidence
3 Religious response
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Claims of success in human cloning

See also: Human Cloning

On December 27, 2002, Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, a Raëlian bishop and CEO of Clonaid, announced to the world press that Clonaid had successfully cloned a human being. Boisselier said that the mother delivered by Caesarean section somewhere outside the United States, and that both the mother and the little girl, Eve, are healthy. Dr. Boisselier did not present the mother or child, or DNA samples that could be used to confirm her claim at the press conference, although she did explain the procedure which she intended to use to confirm her claims. It has subsequently become apparent that the announcement was made prior to genetic testing to evaluate whether the child in question is actually a clone: Dr. Boisselier was therefore stating her belief that her procedure had resulted in a clone, not announcing results showing that the child was a clone.

On January 2, 2003, Dr. Boisselier told a French television audience that the American parents of the supposed clone are balking at providing DNA evidence to prove that their baby is really a clone. The parents are assertedly afraid that the state of Florida will try to take the baby away from them.

On January 4, 2003, Boisselier announced the birth of another cloned baby to a Dutch lesbian couple. Clonaid also said there would be four other cloned babies delivered by February 2003.

[edit] RMX 2010

See also: Biotechnology

The device at the bottom of this picture is the RMX2010 embryonic cell fusion machine developed by Clonaid.^[1] The device on the top part of the picture is a low-end Tektronix oscilloscope commonly used in electrical engineering labs.

What is verifiable at least is the existence of the RMX 2010, the latest embyronic cell fusion device developed by Clonaid itself and available for purchase at the Clonaid website.

Clonaid, a human cloning firm, has established an affiliate company in Korea, participants at the International Bio Expo in Japan said Thursday. Participants and foreign media who attended the first biotechnology exposition in Tokyo, said that Clonaid's vice president Thomas Kaenzig claimed that BioFusion Tech Inc., a South Korean company owned by Clonaid, had developed an "embryonic cell fusion system or RMX2010." The sources in Japan said that the RMX2010 [assertedly] creates a stable electronic pulse required to develop human embryos to the blastocyst stage. The blastocyst stage is the state an embryo reaches five or six days after it is fertilized, which is a critical step to instigate the cloning procedure.

They also said that Kaenzig believes human cloning will become "commonplace" within ten years, though he failed to comment on advances the company has made toward actually cloning a human being. Related to this, an official at BioFusion Tech Inc. confirmed that the company was set up two months ago as a wholly owned subsidiary of Clonaid and that there were currently three Korean technicians and six foreign employees working at the company. The BioFusion employee also said that about 10 Koreans have asked for cloning services, which according to the company Web site (www.clonaid.com) can cost around $200,000.^[2]

BioFusion Tech claims the following for the RMX2010 (without fertilization)^[3]:

94.23% fusion rate

92.0% cleavage rate
41% blastocyst rate

"Fusion rates vary between 90% and 100 % between experiments."
"Typically, 92 to 95 fusions were attempted per experiment."

Note that during cell fusion experiments, cleavage follows after cell fusion, and the formation of a blastocyst can only occur after cleavage (cell division) begins. Both the cleavage rate and the blastocyst rate are compounded on top of the fusion rate.

In comparison to other systems^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8], from these specs, Clonaid claims that that have the best embryonic cell fusion system "in the world". Other soceities have achieved higher values for cleavage rates and blastocyst rates, but procedures obtaining such high cleavage rates and blastocyst rates involve, for example, in-vitro fertilization without cell fusion.^[9]^[10]

[edit] Statements by Raël

See also: Raël and Raëlian Church

In 2001 Raël, together with Clonaid, held a press conference where he made claims of successful human cloning^[11] However, no proof of the claim was made available to the public.

In fact, Raelians have made fun of the media that gave such extensive coverage to their cloning story.

Come my beloved friends and journalists, and ask me if we did all that just to benefit from free publicity ... YESSSS!" Rael cries and bursts out laughing during a Raelian gathering staged in Montreal.^[12]

[edit] Skepticism about cloning claims

See also: Skepticism, Cloning, and In vitro fertilisation

There were scientists who were interviewed regarding the announcement averred skepticism regarding both the authenticity and the ethics of Clonaid's procedures. These included Lord Robert Winston, head of the IVF research team at London's Hammersmith Hospital, and Tanja Dominko of the Oregon Regional Primate Center's monkey cloning project.

There are scientists with experience in animal cloning have stated that cloning has a low rate of success per implantation, and that there are cloned fetuses which are malformed or do not survive to be born. Whether this is indicative of Clonaid's success is still yet to be seen, as IVF in animals is prone to the same problems. Regardless, there are those continue to be surprised that Clonaid does not appear to be affected by these problems; either Clonaid has been extremely lucky in discovering a superior method of cloning, they claim, or the company is making false claims. Still, there are people to whom it seems odd to that Clonaid is not more forthcoming with proof of their success.

In an article published April 23, 2003, The Boston Globe revealed that the company has no address, no board of directors, and only two employees, although Clonaid's website does state that Clonaid is a project name and not a company (the actual company name being kept secret). The company charges up to $200,000 for its "cloning" services. The Raëlians deny direct connection to Clonaid (especially in the financial sense), but admit being in support of Clonaid's actions.^[13]

[edit] Lack of evidence

So far, no verifiable evidence has been presented by Clonaid, despite claims that they would do this within days of their initial announcement. They claim that the parents of the first cloned child have had second thoughts about submitting their child to scientific tests, following the U.S court order in January, 2003.

On January 10, 2003, a U.S. court ordered Clonaid to reveal the identity and whereabouts of the asserted cloned baby.

On October 9, 2003, newspaper Le journal de Montréal published an article accusing Clonaid and the Raelian organization of maintaining an outright hoax in its claims regarding cloning a human baby.

Dr Boissilier has since stated that providing such evidence of her claims would have her jailed for up to thirty years, following a law passed by the French government in 2004 that prohibits French citizens from performing cloning within France or abroad.

[edit] Religious response

There are Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders who openly condemn Clonaid, and there are those who view it as challenging long-held definitions of human dignity and encroaching on the power of God, whom these faiths view as "creating Man in His own image." There are rabbis who have suggested, however, that if humans have the ability to clone, then it is part of God's plan. Others consider the Raelians' suggestion that cloning proves that the soul does not exist makes them a threat to established religions.