Clonaid
Encyclopedia
Clonaid is a human cloning
company founded in 1997. It has philosophical ties with the Raëlian
sect, which sees cloning as the first step in achieving immortality
. On December 27, 2002, Clonaid's chief executive, Brigitte Boisselier
, claimed that a baby clone, named Eve, was born. Media coverage of the claim sparked serious criticism and ethical debate that lasted more than a year. Florida attorney Bernard Siegel
tried to appoint a special guardian for Eve and threatened to sue Clonaid, because he was afraid that the child might be treated like a lab rat. Siegel, who heard the company's actual name was not Clonaid, decided that the Clonaid project was a sham. Bioethicist, Clara Alto condemned Clonaid for premature human experimentation and noted the high incidence of malformations and fetal deaths in animal cloning.
magazine New Scientist
said that the International Raëlian Movement was starting a company to fund the research and development of human cloning. This alarmed bioethicists who were opposed to such plans. They warned lawmakers against failing to regulate human cloning. At the time, European countries such as Britain had banned human cloning, but the United States had merely a moratorium
on the use of federal funds for human cloning
research. Former United States president Bill Clinton
requested that private companies pass their own moratorium. Claude Vorilhon, the founder of Raëlism, was opposed to this move and denied that the technology used to clone was inherently dangerous.
On June 15, 1998, Brigitte Boisselier said the headquarters of Clonaid was located in Las Vegas
, Nevada
and that Clonaid did not have enough funds for human cloning research. On December 19, 1998, a New Scientist article said the cost of Clonaid cloning services would be $
200,000, lower than the $2.3 million dollars that researchers at Texas A&M University
planned to use for cloning a dog named Missy. Mainstreams scientists said it was unlikely that Clonaid would be able to clone anything in the near future. Although the project's ultimate objective was human cloning, she said that pet cloning
would help finance the operations.
. According to an internet announcement, the Raëlian leader and a group of investors founded a company in the Bahamas and called it Valiant Venture Ltd., whose project mission was named Clonaid. Valiant Venture expected to have 1 million potential customers.
Claude Vorilhon held a meeting in a Montreal hotel on September 21, 2000, where he announced that a wealthy American couple was willing to fund the Clonaid project. The first pending clone, according to Vorilhon at the time, was an American couple's 10-month old girl, who had died due to a medical mistake. He said that the couple was willing to pay $500,000 to clone their deceased daughter, but the wife was not willing to be the surrogate mother. Jamie Grifo, a fertility specialist at the New York University School of Medicine
and Nobel laureate Paul Berg
of Stanford University
said that Vorilhon was providing a false hope that the child was going to be the same one. Boisselier revealed the roles of four scientists she says were involved—"a biochemist, a geneticist, a cell fusion expert, and a French medical doctor"—but without revealing their identity. She did not identify the wealthy American couple.
, cloning a human being would not be difficult if many people donated their eggs or offered their wombs for implantation of clone embryos. Lee Silver, a molecular biologist from Princeton, noted the advantages that Raëlians had, as a pro-cloning religious group, in finding willing surrogates. A biotechnology company called Advanced Cell Technology
had cloned human embryo cells for medical purposes, and its CEO Michael West
said that the directions for cloning a human being were available in published scientific literature. Experts knowledgeable of the scientific advances in the field have noted that human reproductive chemistry is better understood than that of most animals. For this reason, they thought that a higher rate of success was possible in human cloning compared with animal cloning. Brigitte Boisselier anticipated that the work could begin on the preserved cells as soon as October, but there was no evidence that Clonaid had medical knowledge necessary for its success. There was no evidence that the Clonaid claim was a more than a publicity stunt.
Office of Criminal Investigations
investigated Clonaid's lab in Nitro
, West Virginia
. It was located inside a rented room within a former high school. Staff scientists reviewed the books in the lab and found them to be sketchy—thus they did not adequately document scientific research. Apparently, it was the work of a graduate student who was working on cow ovaries from a slaughterhouse in order to extract ovum from them. The FDA said that the equipment in lab was state-of-the-art and had been bought by a former West Virginia state legislator Mark Hunt who wanted to clone his 10-month old dead son, Andrew, who died in 1999 due to congenital heart disease. Following investigation of the West Virginia lab, Mark Hunt made an agreement with the FDA-OCI to not clone his dead son within the United States
.
On March 2001, Boisselier said that a woman would be pregnant with a cloned fetus in April. She said that cells had reached the blastocyst stage, but she refused to speak of any specific implantation or pregnancy associated with them. According to a CNN
article that November, the Clonaid laboratory was outside the United States. Clonaid claimed that it had developed human cloned embryos before Advanced Cell Technology was able to do the same. CNN could not confirm the unpublished work. Due to Clonaid's association with Raëlians and the lack of evidence for cloning, authorities remained skeptical as to whether Clonaid could clone anything at all.
On Friday December 27, 2002, Boisselier, a Raëlian bishop and CEO of Clonaid, announced at press conference in Hollywood
, Florida
that Clonaid had successfully performed the first human reproductive cloning. Boisselier said that the mother delivered Eve by Caesarean section
somewhere outside the United States
and that both were healthy. Dr. Boisselier did not present the mother or child, or DNA
samples that would allow for confirmation of her claim at the press conference. It has subsequently become apparent that she announced the birth before 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.
Shortly after the announcement, Korean prosecutors raided the offices of Clonaid's Korean branch, BioFusion Tech. In the process, the prosecutors removed records from homes and offices while barring two representatives of BioFusion Tech from leaving the country. An official company statement revealed that three Korean women applied to become surrogate mothers. Officials of BioFusion Tech told the prosecutors that 10 Korean women wanted to clone themselves and have filled out applications.
The Food and Drug Administration
stated its intention to investigate Clonaid to see if it had done anything illegal. The FDA contended that its regulations forbid human cloning without prior agency permission. However, some members of the United States Congress
believed that the jurisdiction of the FDA on human cloning matters was shaky and decided to push Congress to explicitly ban human cloning.
said that human cloning was "deeply troubling" to most Americans. Kansas
Republican Sam Brownback
said that Congress should ban all human cloning, while some Democrats were worried that Clonaid announcement would lead to the banning of therapeutic cloning. FDA biotechnology chief Dr. Phil Noguchi warned that the human cloning, even if it worked, risked transferring sexually transmitted diseases to the newly born child. The White House
was also critical of the claims.
Panos Zavos
, a former professor of the University of Kentucky
, at the time had plans to create human clone embryos, but he stated to the effect that Clonaid's claims were without merit and that Eve did not exist. Severino Antinori
, who had worked with Zavos on the development of human clone embryos, was critical of Clonaid's announcement, and said of it that, "An announcement of this type has no scientific corroboration and risks creating confusion." Robert Lanza
of Advanced Cell Technologies said that Clonaid has no record of accomplishment for cloning anything, but he said that if Clonaid actually succeeded, there would be public unrest that may lead to the banning of therapeutic cloning, which has the capacity to cure millions of patients. The Vatican
said that the claims expressed a mentality that was brutal and lacked ethical consideration. The Christian Coalition of America urged a human cloning ban and saw the alleged clone baby as an "aberration".
University of Wisconsin–Madison
bioethicist Alta Charo
said that even in other ape-like mammals, the risk for miscarriage, birth defects, and life problems remains high. Arthur Caplan
, the director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, expressed concerns that many dead and sick children could result from the cloning of human beings.
filed a petition as a private citizen in the Broward County Circuit Court requesting that a temporary guardian be appointed for the purported cloned child. As the court case played out over the next month, Dr. Boisselier testified under oath that there was a cloned child, born in Israel. However, Clonaid did not present demonstrative evidence that the child really existed. Boisselier said that Eve would travel to the United States that day for DNA tests. She said that a pediatrician saw Eve and her mother in good condition, but she refused to mention the location of the surrogate birth, the testing lab, or the biological mother's home, which she wanted to reveal at a later time. The mother was said to be 31 years old with an infertile husband.
Florida attorney Bernard Siegel subpoenaed Thomas Kaenzig, a vice president of Clonaid, to appear on a civil proceeding set to occur on January 22, 2003. Siegel's office sent summonses to Thomas Kaenzig and "Jane Doe", the purported mother of Eve. Siegel hoped that the action would coax those involved to provide some answers. He believed the child, if she existed, needed an appointed guardian and would need extensive medical treatment which he doubts Clonaid could offer. He wanted the court to make a decision on how to best protect her. However, Clonaid prevented scientists from meeting the purported child and mother.
science editor, made an agreement with Boisselier for him to choose independent experts to test for a DNA
match. Clonaid refused to identify the independent experts, because if revealed too soon, others could track the baby from the testing place into the mother's house. Clonaid said the parents had the final say on whether they want to test the baby and that a Dutch lesbian couple would be the parents of the next cloned baby. Boisselier said she would hand over the evidence to show that a clone had in fact been born but was concerned that the details of Clonaid's cloning procedure might leak out. The next day, Vorilhon claimed that the baby was healthy. He said those who are against cloning for ethical reasons would be dismayed if the clone baby was in good condition.
Thomas Kaenzig refused to testify in a court hearing, but Florida judge John Frusciante Sr. was able to convince Kaenzig through a telephone to reveal some of the details. Kaenzig testified that Clonaid left him ignorant of the cloning project and that it was not even a corporation. The judge summoned Kaenzig and Brigitte Boisselier to a Florida court and warned the two that they would be condemned if they did not show there on January 29, 2003. As the court case played out, Dr. Boisselier testified under oath that she saw videos of a cloned child born in Israel.
Michael Guillen was disappointed when he discovered that Clonaid withdrew their offer to provide the tests. The company said that before the tests were done, the parents wanted to be sure that their baby would not be sent away, but a Florida attorney asked that a guardian for Eve be appointed and threatened the company with a lawsuit. Guillen, who remained skeptical, said it would be unwise to dismiss the Clonaid project without proper confirmation.
Raëlian spokesman Bart Overvliet claimed that another cloned baby was born to a Dutch lesbian couple in the Netherlands the previous day and that the mother and baby were in good health. A Dutch Raëlian spokeswoman could not comment on any further details about the mother, but Boisselier said that the mother gave birth to her own clone. An official from the Dutch Health Ministry told Reuters
that the Netherlands forbade human cloning but not the birth of baby clones. On January 5, 2003, Brigitte Boisselier said to the BBC
that her medical team produced hundreds of human clone embryos before proceeding to ten implantations, two of which led to births. The head of the UK Roslin Institute was critical of the assertion, "Clonaid [has] no track record but claim[s] to have cloned hundreds of embryos - it just doesn't ring true."
A Raëlian spokeswoman from Japan claimed that a baby boy, cloned from a comatose two year-old of a Japanese couple, was born the previous day. Boisselier said that a surrogate participated since the biological mother was 41 and more likely to have a miscarriage. Scientists knew that many cloned animals suffer arthritis and ailments with the lungs and liver, and they were concerned that too many unanswered questions surround the prospect of cloning of humans safely. Clonaid set up press conferences in which they described their method of cloning, but they did not give any details. However, they did say that the third cloning was different, in that did not involve a mothers egg, but the surrogate's egg with the injection of the boy's DNA.
According to Boisselier, Mark and Tracy Hunt, who were seeking to clone their dead son, invested $500,000 in the former Clonaid lab in West Virginia and its equipment, which the Food and Drug Administration
shut down. The Clonaid CEO proposed a cloning lab on Brazilian Island
for creating the next generation of clone babies. Clonaid claimed that five baby clones were born between 26 December 2002 and February 4, 2003 which had developed normally.
In late July 2002, Clonaid's branch in South Korea, BioFusion Tech, said a woman became pregnant with a human clone. However, in the week of September 27, 2002, South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that it would ban human cloning and sentence violators to a 10-year prison term. Branch spokesman Kwak Gi-Hwa said that the surrogate mother, unmarried at 26 years old, moved out of South Korea into another country. The spokesman said he had no knowledge of which country that was and that only a few people in Clonaid knew. He described himself as simply a volunteer for the branch which had closed under government pressure following their claim. He accused the government of Korea of considering Christian opinions of human cloning over those of scientists who criticized the proposed human cloning ban. He was later summoned to witness in front of the Korean Parliament.
In February 2004, Clonaid claimed that a sixth clone baby was born in Australia
. Additionally, it claimed to have produced human embryos in South Korea
. The small number of companies that have access to cloning technology has resulted skepticism by cloning experts in Korea, who accused Clonaid of defaming the now debunked stem cell work of Doctor Hwang Woo-suk
. By March 2004, Clonaid claimed that eight extra baby clones had been brought to term for a total of thirteen baby clones.
CNN Money has listed the RMX 2010 as the fourth "Dumbest Moment in Business 2003", stating "Clonaid sells the RMX 2010, a $9,220 contraption that ... well, nobody's quite sure what it does. To help clarify the matter, Clonaid lends one to a British science museum—under strict orders not to open it to find out what's inside."
, head of the IVF research team at London's Hammersmith Hospital
, and Tanja Dominko of the Oregon Regional Primate Center's monkey cloning project. Scientists with experience in animal cloning have encountered low rates of success per implantation, where cloned fetuses are often malformed and dead before birth. Regardless, people continue to be surprised that Clonaid appears to have overcome those problems; either Clonaid has been extremely lucky in discovering a superior method of cloning, or the company is making false claims.
Clonaid charges up to $200,000 for its "cloning" services. Clonaid has not shown verifiable evidence of any human cloning, despite claims that they would do this within days of their initial announcement. They claim that the parents of the first cloned child had second thoughts about submitting their child to scientific tests after attorney Bernard Siegel filed suit. According to sealed court documents received by the Boston Globe which were reported on April 27, 2003, Clonaid had two employees but no address or board of directors. CBS News
reported that Clonaid was not a company. Boisselier revealed that in a strict sense, Clonaid was just the product name, even though Clonaid's website had touted it as the company name.
Human cloning
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...
company founded in 1997. It has philosophical ties with the Raëlian
Raëlism
Raëlism is a UFO religion that was founded in 1974 by Claude Vorilhon, now known as Raël.The Raëlian Movement teaches that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials, which they call the Elohim...
sect, which sees cloning as the first step in achieving immortality
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
. On December 27, 2002, Clonaid's chief executive, Brigitte Boisselier
Brigitte Boisselier
Brigitte Boisselier is the head of Clonaid, the "scientific wing" of the Raëlians. She has been a Raëlian since 1992 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...
, claimed that a baby clone, named Eve, was born. Media coverage of the claim sparked serious criticism and ethical debate that lasted more than a year. Florida attorney Bernard Siegel
Bernard Siegel
Bernard Siegel is the Executive Director of the nonprofit Genetics Policy Institute based in Wellington, Florida. A graduate of the University of Miami undergraduate and law, he is an attorney and member of the Florida Bar since 1975...
tried to appoint a special guardian for Eve and threatened to sue Clonaid, because he was afraid that the child might be treated like a lab rat. Siegel, who heard the company's actual name was not Clonaid, decided that the Clonaid project was a sham. Bioethicist, Clara Alto condemned Clonaid for premature human experimentation and noted the high incidence of malformations and fetal deaths in animal cloning.
Company founding
On May 31, 1997, an issue of the popular sciencePopular science
Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many...
magazine New Scientist
New Scientist
New Scientist is a weekly non-peer-reviewed English-language international science magazine, which since 1996 has also run a website, covering recent developments in science and technology for a general audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of...
said that the International Raëlian Movement was starting a company to fund the research and development of human cloning. This alarmed bioethicists who were opposed to such plans. They warned lawmakers against failing to regulate human cloning. At the time, European countries such as Britain had banned human cloning, but the United States had merely a moratorium
Moratorium (law)
A moratorium is a delay or suspension of an activity or a law. In a legal context, it may refer to the temporary suspension of a law to allow a legal challenge to be carried out....
on the use of federal funds for human cloning
Human cloning
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...
research. Former United States president Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
requested that private companies pass their own moratorium. Claude Vorilhon, the founder of Raëlism, was opposed to this move and denied that the technology used to clone was inherently dangerous.
On June 15, 1998, Brigitte Boisselier said the headquarters of Clonaid was located in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
and that Clonaid did not have enough funds for human cloning research. On December 19, 1998, a New Scientist article said the cost of Clonaid cloning services would be $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
200,000, lower than the $2.3 million dollars that researchers at Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...
planned to use for cloning a dog named Missy. Mainstreams scientists said it was unlikely that Clonaid would be able to clone anything in the near future. Although the project's ultimate objective was human cloning, she said that pet cloning
Pet cloning
Pet cloning is the commercial cloning of a pet animal. The first commercially cloned pet was a cat named Little Nicky, produced in 2004 by Genetic Savings & Clone for a north Texas woman for the fee of US$50,000. On May 21, 2008 BioArts International announced a limited commercial dog cloning...
would help finance the operations.
Premise
On June 9, 1997, Clonaid stated its intention to offer homosexual and/or infertile couples the chance to have a genetically identical child and to become a step closer towards the goal of achieving eternal lifeEternal life (Christianity)
In Christianity the term eternal life traditionally refers to continued life after death, rather than immortality. While scholars such as John H. Leith assert that...
. According to an internet announcement, the Raëlian leader and a group of investors founded a company in the Bahamas and called it Valiant Venture Ltd., whose project mission was named Clonaid. Valiant Venture expected to have 1 million potential customers.
Claude Vorilhon held a meeting in a Montreal hotel on September 21, 2000, where he announced that a wealthy American couple was willing to fund the Clonaid project. The first pending clone, according to Vorilhon at the time, was an American couple's 10-month old girl, who had died due to a medical mistake. He said that the couple was willing to pay $500,000 to clone their deceased daughter, but the wife was not willing to be the surrogate mother. Jamie Grifo, a fertility specialist at the New York University School of Medicine
New York University School of Medicine
The New York University School of Medicine is one of the graduate schools of New York University. Founded in 1841 as the University Medical College, the NYU School of Medicine is one of the foremost medical schools in the United States....
and Nobel laureate Paul Berg
Paul Berg
Paul Berg is an American biochemist and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980, along with Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger. The award recognized their contributions to basic research involving nucleic acids...
of Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
said that Vorilhon was providing a false hope that the child was going to be the same one. Boisselier revealed the roles of four scientists she says were involved—"a biochemist, a geneticist, a cell fusion expert, and a French medical doctor"—but without revealing their identity. She did not identify the wealthy American couple.
Responses by scientists
According to cloning specialist and physiologist George Seidel of Colorado State UniversityColorado State University
Colorado State University is a public research university located in Fort Collins, Colorado. The university is the state's land grant university, and the flagship university of the Colorado State University System.The enrollment is approximately 29,932 students, including resident and...
, cloning a human being would not be difficult if many people donated their eggs or offered their wombs for implantation of clone embryos. Lee Silver, a molecular biologist from Princeton, noted the advantages that Raëlians had, as a pro-cloning religious group, in finding willing surrogates. A biotechnology company called Advanced Cell Technology
Advanced Cell Technology
Advanced Cell Technology, Incorporated , is a biotechnology company located in Marlborough, Massachusetts, USA. The company specializes in the development and commercialization of cell therapies for the treatment of a variety of diseases...
had cloned human embryo cells for medical purposes, and its CEO Michael West
Michael D. West
Dr. Michael D. West is CEO of Biotime, of Alameda, California, a company engaged in stem cell research and development, development of low temperature medicine , and development of artificial blood plasma solutions for the treatment for blood loss due to trauma and elective surgery...
said that the directions for cloning a human being were available in published scientific literature. Experts knowledgeable of the scientific advances in the field have noted that human reproductive chemistry is better understood than that of most animals. For this reason, they thought that a higher rate of success was possible in human cloning compared with animal cloning. Brigitte Boisselier anticipated that the work could begin on the preserved cells as soon as October, but there was no evidence that Clonaid had medical knowledge necessary for its success. There was no evidence that the Clonaid claim was a more than a publicity stunt.
The year before the alleged clone baby claim
In the spring of 2001, the Food and Drug AdministrationFood and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
Office of Criminal Investigations
Office of Criminal Investigations - FDA
The Office of Criminal Investigations ' was established to provide the Food and Drug Administration with a specific Office to conduct and coordinate criminal investigations...
investigated Clonaid's lab in Nitro
Nitro, West Virginia
Nitro is a city in West Virginia, along the Kanawha River. Most of the city lies in Kanawha County, with the remainder in Putnam County. The population was 7,178 at the 2010 census.Nitro was incorporated in 1932 by Circuit Court.- City name origin :...
, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
. It was located inside a rented room within a former high school. Staff scientists reviewed the books in the lab and found them to be sketchy—thus they did not adequately document scientific research. Apparently, it was the work of a graduate student who was working on cow ovaries from a slaughterhouse in order to extract ovum from them. The FDA said that the equipment in lab was state-of-the-art and had been bought by a former West Virginia state legislator Mark Hunt who wanted to clone his 10-month old dead son, Andrew, who died in 1999 due to congenital heart disease. Following investigation of the West Virginia lab, Mark Hunt made an agreement with the FDA-OCI to not clone his dead son within the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
On March 2001, Boisselier said that a woman would be pregnant with a cloned fetus in April. She said that cells had reached the blastocyst stage, but she refused to speak of any specific implantation or pregnancy associated with them. According to a CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
article that November, the Clonaid laboratory was outside the United States. Clonaid claimed that it had developed human cloned embryos before Advanced Cell Technology was able to do the same. CNN could not confirm the unpublished work. Due to Clonaid's association with Raëlians and the lack of evidence for cloning, authorities remained skeptical as to whether Clonaid could clone anything at all.
Alleged clone baby Eve
Hollywood, Florida
-Demographics:As of 2000, there were 59,673 households out of which 24.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.5% were married couples living together, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.2% were non-families. 34.4% of all households were made up of...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
that Clonaid had successfully performed the first human reproductive cloning. Boisselier said that the mother delivered Eve by Caesarean section
Caesarean section
A Caesarean section, is a surgical procedure in which one or more incisions are made through a mother's abdomen and uterus to deliver one or more babies, or, rarely, to remove a dead fetus...
somewhere outside the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and that both were healthy. Dr. Boisselier did not present the mother or child, or DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
samples that would allow for confirmation of her claim at the press conference. It has subsequently become apparent that she announced the birth before 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.
Shortly after the announcement, Korean prosecutors raided the offices of Clonaid's Korean branch, BioFusion Tech. In the process, the prosecutors removed records from homes and offices while barring two representatives of BioFusion Tech from leaving the country. An official company statement revealed that three Korean women applied to become surrogate mothers. Officials of BioFusion Tech told the prosecutors that 10 Korean women wanted to clone themselves and have filled out applications.
The Food and Drug Administration
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
stated its intention to investigate Clonaid to see if it had done anything illegal. The FDA contended that its regulations forbid human cloning without prior agency permission. However, some members of the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
believed that the jurisdiction of the FDA on human cloning matters was shaky and decided to push Congress to explicitly ban human cloning.
Responses by politicians and ethicists
President George W. BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
said that human cloning was "deeply troubling" to most Americans. Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
Republican Sam Brownback
Sam Brownback
Samuel Dale "Sam" Brownback is the 46th and current Governor of Kansas. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1996 to 2011, and as a U.S. Representative for Kansas's 2nd congressional district from 1995 to 1996...
said that Congress should ban all human cloning, while some Democrats were worried that Clonaid announcement would lead to the banning of therapeutic cloning. FDA biotechnology chief Dr. Phil Noguchi warned that the human cloning, even if it worked, risked transferring sexually transmitted diseases to the newly born child. The White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
was also critical of the claims.
Panos Zavos
Panayiotis Zavos
Panayiotis Michael Zavos is a Greek Cypriot biologist from Cyprus. He is also an American citizen who currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky.-Biography:...
, a former professor of the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
, at the time had plans to create human clone embryos, but he stated to the effect that Clonaid's claims were without merit and that Eve did not exist. Severino Antinori
Severino Antinori
Severino Antinori is an Italian gynecologist and embryologist. He has publicly taken controversial positions over in vitro fertilisation and human cloning....
, who had worked with Zavos on the development of human clone embryos, was critical of Clonaid's announcement, and said of it that, "An announcement of this type has no scientific corroboration and risks creating confusion." Robert Lanza
Robert Lanza
Robert Paul Lanza is an American Doctor of Medicine, scientist, Chief Scientific Officer of Advanced Cell Technology and Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine....
of Advanced Cell Technologies said that Clonaid has no record of accomplishment for cloning anything, but he said that if Clonaid actually succeeded, there would be public unrest that may lead to the banning of therapeutic cloning, which has the capacity to cure millions of patients. The Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
said that the claims expressed a mentality that was brutal and lacked ethical consideration. The Christian Coalition of America urged a human cloning ban and saw the alleged clone baby as an "aberration".
University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
bioethicist Alta Charo
Alta Charo
Alta Charo is the Warren P. Knowles Professor of Law and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a leading American authority on bioethics. She holds appointments in both Wisconsin's law school and medical school....
said that even in other ape-like mammals, the risk for miscarriage, birth defects, and life problems remains high. Arthur Caplan
Arthur Caplan
Arthur L. Caplan, Ph.D., is Emmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics and director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to coming to Penn in 1994, Caplan taught at the University of Minnesota, the University of Pittsburgh, and Columbia University. He was the...
, the director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, expressed concerns that many dead and sick children could result from the cloning of human beings.
Request for a temporary guardian
Clonaid spokeswoman Nadine Gary claimed that Eve went home with her mother on December 30, 2002, but Florida attorney Bernard SiegelBernard Siegel
Bernard Siegel is the Executive Director of the nonprofit Genetics Policy Institute based in Wellington, Florida. A graduate of the University of Miami undergraduate and law, he is an attorney and member of the Florida Bar since 1975...
filed a petition as a private citizen in the Broward County Circuit Court requesting that a temporary guardian be appointed for the purported cloned child. As the court case played out over the next month, Dr. Boisselier testified under oath that there was a cloned child, born in Israel. However, Clonaid did not present demonstrative evidence that the child really existed. Boisselier said that Eve would travel to the United States that day for DNA tests. She said that a pediatrician saw Eve and her mother in good condition, but she refused to mention the location of the surrogate birth, the testing lab, or the biological mother's home, which she wanted to reveal at a later time. The mother was said to be 31 years old with an infertile husband.
Florida attorney Bernard Siegel subpoenaed Thomas Kaenzig, a vice president of Clonaid, to appear on a civil proceeding set to occur on January 22, 2003. Siegel's office sent summonses to Thomas Kaenzig and "Jane Doe", the purported mother of Eve. Siegel hoped that the action would coax those involved to provide some answers. He believed the child, if she existed, needed an appointed guardian and would need extensive medical treatment which he doubts Clonaid could offer. He wanted the court to make a decision on how to best protect her. However, Clonaid prevented scientists from meeting the purported child and mother.
Request for a DNA verification test
Michael Guillen, a former ABC NewsABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
science editor, made an agreement with Boisselier for him to choose independent experts to test for a DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
match. Clonaid refused to identify the independent experts, because if revealed too soon, others could track the baby from the testing place into the mother's house. Clonaid said the parents had the final say on whether they want to test the baby and that a Dutch lesbian couple would be the parents of the next cloned baby. Boisselier said she would hand over the evidence to show that a clone had in fact been born but was concerned that the details of Clonaid's cloning procedure might leak out. The next day, Vorilhon claimed that the baby was healthy. He said those who are against cloning for ethical reasons would be dismayed if the clone baby was in good condition.
Thomas Kaenzig refused to testify in a court hearing, but Florida judge John Frusciante Sr. was able to convince Kaenzig through a telephone to reveal some of the details. Kaenzig testified that Clonaid left him ignorant of the cloning project and that it was not even a corporation. The judge summoned Kaenzig and Brigitte Boisselier to a Florida court and warned the two that they would be condemned if they did not show there on January 29, 2003. As the court case played out, Dr. Boisselier testified under oath that she saw videos of a cloned child born in Israel.
Michael Guillen was disappointed when he discovered that Clonaid withdrew their offer to provide the tests. The company said that before the tests were done, the parents wanted to be sure that their baby would not be sent away, but a Florida attorney asked that a guardian for Eve be appointed and threatened the company with a lawsuit. Guillen, who remained skeptical, said it would be unwise to dismiss the Clonaid project without proper confirmation.
Claims of further human clones
The day after Boisselier made her announcement, she added that four more human clones were to be born within a few weeks. Boisselier claimed that Clonaid had a list of couples who were ready to have a cloned child. and that 20 more implantations of human clones were on the way after the first 10 which happened in the previous year. She said that other companies have used cloning procedures with different specifics that lead to their high failure rate. Boisselier argued that failed attempts at human cloning would be like those of in vitro fertilisation where early miscarriages occurred more frequently than abortions. Nevertheless, she said that if deformities were detected in Eve, someone would abort her.Raëlian spokesman Bart Overvliet claimed that another cloned baby was born to a Dutch lesbian couple in the Netherlands the previous day and that the mother and baby were in good health. A Dutch Raëlian spokeswoman could not comment on any further details about the mother, but Boisselier said that the mother gave birth to her own clone. An official from the Dutch Health Ministry told Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
that the Netherlands forbade human cloning but not the birth of baby clones. On January 5, 2003, Brigitte Boisselier said to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
that her medical team produced hundreds of human clone embryos before proceeding to ten implantations, two of which led to births. The head of the UK Roslin Institute was critical of the assertion, "Clonaid [has] no track record but claim[s] to have cloned hundreds of embryos - it just doesn't ring true."
A Raëlian spokeswoman from Japan claimed that a baby boy, cloned from a comatose two year-old of a Japanese couple, was born the previous day. Boisselier said that a surrogate participated since the biological mother was 41 and more likely to have a miscarriage. Scientists knew that many cloned animals suffer arthritis and ailments with the lungs and liver, and they were concerned that too many unanswered questions surround the prospect of cloning of humans safely. Clonaid set up press conferences in which they described their method of cloning, but they did not give any details. However, they did say that the third cloning was different, in that did not involve a mothers egg, but the surrogate's egg with the injection of the boy's DNA.
According to Boisselier, Mark and Tracy Hunt, who were seeking to clone their dead son, invested $500,000 in the former Clonaid lab in West Virginia and its equipment, which the Food and Drug Administration
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
shut down. The Clonaid CEO proposed a cloning lab on Brazilian Island
Brazilian Island
Brazilian Island is a small fluvial island situated at the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Quarai River, between the borders of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay....
for creating the next generation of clone babies. Clonaid claimed that five baby clones were born between 26 December 2002 and February 4, 2003 which had developed normally.
In late July 2002, Clonaid's branch in South Korea, BioFusion Tech, said a woman became pregnant with a human clone. However, in the week of September 27, 2002, South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that it would ban human cloning and sentence violators to a 10-year prison term. Branch spokesman Kwak Gi-Hwa said that the surrogate mother, unmarried at 26 years old, moved out of South Korea into another country. The spokesman said he had no knowledge of which country that was and that only a few people in Clonaid knew. He described himself as simply a volunteer for the branch which had closed under government pressure following their claim. He accused the government of Korea of considering Christian opinions of human cloning over those of scientists who criticized the proposed human cloning ban. He was later summoned to witness in front of the Korean Parliament.
In February 2004, Clonaid claimed that a sixth clone baby was born in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Additionally, it claimed to have produced human embryos in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
. The small number of companies that have access to cloning technology has resulted skepticism by cloning experts in Korea, who accused Clonaid of defaming the now debunked stem cell work of Doctor Hwang Woo-suk
Hwang Woo-Suk
Hwang Woo-suk is a South Korean veterinarian and researcher. He was a professor of theriogenology and biotechnology at Seoul National University who became infamous for fabricating a series of experiments, which appeared in high-profile journals, in the field of stem cell research...
. By March 2004, Clonaid claimed that eight extra baby clones had been brought to term for a total of thirteen baby clones.
Embryonic cell fusion machine
Besides offering cloning services, Clonaid has developed one product, an "embryonic cell fusion device" called the RMX 2010.CNN Money has listed the RMX 2010 as the fourth "Dumbest Moment in Business 2003", stating "Clonaid sells the RMX 2010, a $9,220 contraption that ... well, nobody's quite sure what it does. To help clarify the matter, Clonaid lends one to a British science museum—under strict orders not to open it to find out what's inside."
Additional skepticism
Scientists interviewed about the announcement averred skepticism regarding both the authenticity and the ethics of Clonaid's procedures. These included Lord Robert WinstonRobert Winston
Robert Maurice Lipson Winston, Baron Winston is a British professor, medical doctor, scientist, television presenter and politician.-Early life and education :...
, head of the IVF research team at London's Hammersmith Hospital
Hammersmith Hospital
Hammersmith Hospital is a major teaching hospital in West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and is associated with the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine...
, and Tanja Dominko of the Oregon Regional Primate Center's monkey cloning project. Scientists with experience in animal cloning have encountered low rates of success per implantation, where cloned fetuses are often malformed and dead before birth. Regardless, people continue to be surprised that Clonaid appears to have overcome those problems; either Clonaid has been extremely lucky in discovering a superior method of cloning, or the company is making false claims.
Clonaid charges up to $200,000 for its "cloning" services. Clonaid has not shown verifiable evidence of any human cloning, despite claims that they would do this within days of their initial announcement. They claim that the parents of the first cloned child had second thoughts about submitting their child to scientific tests after attorney Bernard Siegel filed suit.
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
reported that Clonaid was not a company. Boisselier revealed that in a strict sense, Clonaid was just the product name, even though Clonaid's website had touted it as the company name.
Further reading
- RaëlRaëlClaude Maurice Marcel Vorilhon is the founder and current leader of the UFO religion known as Raëlism....
, Intelligent Design. Nova Distribution, 2005. ISBN 2940253003. - RaëlRaëlClaude Maurice Marcel Vorilhon is the founder and current leader of the UFO religion known as Raëlism....
, Yes to Human Cloning: Immortality Thanks to Science. Tagman Press, 2001. ISBN 1-903571-05-7; ISBN 1-903571-04-9. - Stock, GregoryGregory StockGregory Stock is a biophysicist, best-selling author, biotech entrepreneur, and the former director of the Program on Medicine, Technology and Society at UCLA’s School of Medicine...
, Redesigning Humans: Choosing our Genes, Changing our Future. Houghton Mifflin Books, 2002. ISBN 061806026X. - Tandy, Charles, Doctor Tandy's First Guide to Life Extension and Transhumanity Universal-Publishers.com, 2001. ISBN 1581126506.
External links
- Clonaid's website
- StemAid Clonaid's sister company offering stem-cell therapy.
- Rael.org The philosophy behind the Clonaid project.
- BBC news story: Clonaid ordered to reveal 'clone'
- Reflections on the Cloning Case