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What
is ClonAid?
CLONAID™
was founded in February 1997 by Raël who is the leader
of the Raelian Movement, an international religious
organization which claims that life on Earth was created
scientifically through DNA and genetic engineering by
a human extraterrestrial race whose name, Elohim, is
found in the Hebrew Bible and was mistranslated by the
word "God". The Raelian Movement also claims that Jesus
was resurrected through an advanced cloning technique
performed by the Elohim. Basically another ploy on the
old science fiction premise that Aliens are God.
What
do they believe will be achieved by cloning a human?
Here is a quote from Rael:
"Cloning
will enable mankind to reach eternal life. The next
step, like the Elohim do with their 25,000 years of
scientific advance, will be to directly clone an adult
person without having to go through the growth process
and to transfer memory and personality in this person.
Then, we wake up after death in a brand new body just
like after a good night sleep!" Raël
And
as Raël says, don't be mistaken in thinking that this
is 22nd-century science fiction. All this will happen
within the next 20 years! He has written a book to prepare
us for an unimaginably beautiful world, turned into
a paradise, where no one needs work anymore!
Okay,
so we have established that this group believes that
aliens are God and started mankind by cloning themselves
and that man should pursue cloning in order to transfer
his consciousness into a fully grown human. My question
at this point is why is this being taken seriously?
Human cloning is inevitable. It will happen somewhere
and sometime, but I just don't the the Raelian's are
the people to accomplish this.
It's
immoral using today's techniques
Many
ethicists argue that cloning people would compromise
their freedom and individuality, that it is equal to
manufacturing humans. Don't worry, I am not going to
get ultra-religious on the properties of a soul, etc.
That being said, the clones that have been produced
often have severe problems such as developmental delays,
heart defects, lung problems and malfunctioning immune
systems. Some cloned mice that seemed normal suddenly,
when they reach the equivalent age of 30 for a person,
grow grotesquely fat. Cloned mice also tend to have
developmental abnormalities, taking longer to reach
milestones like eye opening and ear twitching. Cow clones
are often born with enlarged hearts or lungs that do
not develop properly. The jury is still out on the clone
and the aging process. Dolly the sheep was cloned from
a six year old sheep udder cell (six years old is ancient
for a sheep). Initial experiments with Dolly indicated
that her telomeres were shorter and she was aging faster
than she should age (Nature, 1999). Later experiments
with cloned mice showed no accelerated aging.
In
biotech and pharmaceutical development you make the
assumption (although not always true) that what is seen
in animals will directly translate to humans. Knowing
the problems that have been encountered with animals,
who in their right mind would try to do this with a
human being? Maybe someone who thinks aliens started
the world by cloning themselves and releasing their
clones to become feral beasts. That is what really scares
me...
How
many clones do they claim to have produced?
On
December 29th, Boisselier said a second cloned
baby is due to be born next week to a lesbian couple
in northern Europe. Boisselier had previously announced
that four other couples, including the lesbians, were
expected to give birth to Clonaid-created clones by
early February.
Rael
claims that there are over 2,000 people on the waiting
list to pay the $200,000 they are charging for creating
clones of themselves or loved ones. Obviously , $400,000,000
in revenue is a big draw.
When
will we know the truth?
On
December 30th, the baby was to come home to the United
States. Clonaid has agreed that Michael Guillen, a former
ABC News science editor, will line up the DNA testing
experts. Guillen, who holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University
and taught physics at Harvard before going into television
journalism, said, "I'm just trying to get to the bottom
of this story." The testing will probably take a couple
of weeks once the samples are collected. (this never
happened)
What
will be the implications?
My
biggest concern is that in the rush to pass laws regarding
cloning that many of the therapeutic aspects of cloning
will be lost as well. The use of cloned cells to produce
new organs is something that could revolutionize medicine.
I would hope that in the rush to cover up this that
our elected officials would not pass broad sweeping
laws that would interfere with research that could lead
to transplants without the need for damaging immune
suppression drugs.
Links:
Cloinaid
website: http://www.clonaid.com/
To err is human - but to clone one divine at theLabRat.com:
http://www.thelabrat.com/review/humancloning.shtml
How stuff works page on cloning: http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/genetic/human-cloning.htm
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