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Founder • History |
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Brigitte Boisselier (born 1956)[1] is the head of Clonaid, the "scientific wing" of the Raëlians. She has been a Raëlian since 1992[2] and primarily known for claiming that the company, run by church members, was the first organization to clone a full human being in the early 2000s. However, this claim was never backed up by any kind of evidence and was generally believed, as it is today, to be purely a publicity stunt.
Brigitte Boisselier served as a visiting chemistry professor at Hamilton College, resigning in April, 2001, during the first year of a three-year appointment.[3]
On December 27, 2002,[4] Boisselier, a Raëlian bishop and CEO of Clonaid, stated to the press that Clonaid had successfully given birth to a cloned human being the previous day. Boisselier said that the mother delivered by Caesarean section somewhere outside the United States, and that both the mother and the little girl, Eve, were healthy. 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 was actually a clone: 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, 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,[5] Boisselier announced the birth of another cloned baby to a Dutch lesbian couple and stated that there would be four other cloned babies delivered by February 2003.
She holds a master's degree in biochemistry, a Ph. D in physical chemistry from the University of Dijon in France and another Ph. D in analytical chemistry from the University of Houston in the United States under the guidance of Prof. Karl Kadish.[6]
She is currently married to Ricky Lee Roehr.[7] The name Brigitte Roehr appears as the author's name on most Raëlian Contact newsletter issues since issue #279.[8]