RAELIANS PLAN TO CLONE HUMAN BABY

Religious sect plans to clone human baby
Members believe it is first step to eternal life

http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20000926/410429.html

Mary Vallis
National Post
A biotechnology company established by a religious sect that claims it was founded by aliens says it will begin cloning a human baby next month.

The Raelian Movement, a 50,000-member religion that believes human cloning is the first step toward eternal life, has found a set of parents in the United States willing to pay up to US$2-million to have their baby cloned.

The group says the couple's 10-month-old baby died at a hospital in the United States. Blood samples taken before the baby died will provide the necessary DNA for the procedure.

The movement's biotechnology company, Valiant Venture Ltd., claims to be the first company to offer human cloning. For US$50,000, it says it will take a sample of a live child's cells and store them so they can be cloned if the child dies.

The company intends to charge an additional US$200,000 for the actual cloning.

No mother on Earth wants to lose a child, said Rael, the Quebec-based spiritual leader of the movement. "There is a possibility, due to any kind of accident or disease, to have this child back. You cannot find a mother in the world who will not use this technique to have him back."

Dr. Patricia Baird, who chaired Canada's Royal Commission on Reproductive Technologies in 1993, issued a strongly worded statement against the scheme.

"What is the motivation for trying to take a cell from a dead child and resurrect that into a physical copy of that child?" she said.

"It's disrespectful to the individuality of that human being. Cloning does not copy all the kinds of attributes of human beings that we value. It copies certain genetic ones, but not the ones that are important in terms of personal interaction -- like whether they are happy -- which are determined by environmental input."

The process would also do psychological harm to the cloned individual, whose sole purpose would be to recreate another person's image -- not to mention the medical concerns, Dr. Baird added.

"It raises so many social and ethical questions of harm that it raises the need -- again -- for regulation internationally to deal with the issues surrounding human cloning," Dr. Baird said.

Canada has a moratorium on human cloning.

The company is establishing a laboratory at an undisclosed location in the United States, where there is no federal legislation, and in many cases no state laws, outlawing human cloning.

Fifty Raelian women from around the world have offered to be the clone's surrogate mother.

The company has received hundreds of calls from parents asking about the service, including inquiries from homosexual couples who want a child cloned from one partner's DNA, said scientific director Dr. Brigitte Boisselier.

According to the Raelians, humanity was created in laboratories by extraterrestrials whose name is mistranslated by the word "God."

They say Jesus's resurrection was in fact a cloning performed by the aliens.

Their leader said human cloning is the first step to an accelerated growth process that would allow adults to transfer their memories and personalities into a new body.

Rael said no pressure is put on families interested in the cloning services to join the movement.

The company will also offer its services for deceased pets when its work gets underway in October.

The group expects the first cloned baby to be born by Christmas 2001.