[extropy-chat] FWD [forteana] Hmm . . . the Raelians have been out of the news lately

[Terry W. Colvin]

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(from AAP (via news.com.au) 12.02.04)

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8654751%255E1702,00.html

Clone baby 'born in Australia'
By Nikki Todd
February 11, 2004

THE controversial international cloning group Clonaid today claimed it had 
successfully created its sixth child, following the birth of a baby boy in 
Sydney last week.

The child is said to have been born in a Sydney hospital on February 5, 
2004, to infertile parents living in the greater Sydney area.

Head of the Clonaid project, biochemist Brigitte Boisselier, who is in 
Australia to monitor the birth, said the boy had been released from 
hospital and was being monitored by a local pediatrician.

"It happened last Thursday morning, the baby is a little boy," Dr 
Boisselier told AAP.

"We waited a few days to make sure that everything was okay, but like the 
first five babies born last year, he was perfectly healthy and reactions 
are perfectly normal.

13a52c.jpg

"The parents are an infertile couple, and the father is the one who gave 
the cells to have the baby.

"The mother has been carrying the child, so it is very easy, the situation."

Dr Boisselier declined to reveal further details about the child, his 
family, or their doctor, for privacy reasons.

Clonaid grabbed international headlines last year, after it claimed to have 
created the first cloned human baby, a girl named Eve.

Since then, the organisation says a further five cloned babies have been 
born, including the Sydney boy.

Another seven babies are expected to be born in various countries before 
the end of February, as part of a new group of implantations.

Clonaid is linked to the quasi-religious Raelian Movement which believes 
aliens created life on Earth with cloning being the key to humanity's 
survival.

But the organisation's claims have been dismissed as a hoax by the wider 
scientific, medical and religious communities, due to its failure to 
produce DNA proof of the babies.

Dr Boisselier, usually based in Las Vegas, will remain in Australia for 
another week as part of scientific documentation of the birth which she 
says will validate their claims.

"What we are doing right now, and hopefully it will be published by April, 
we are collecting those cells and there is an independent lab in America 
that will do all the testing," Dr Boisselier said.

"They will look to what we are doing and what the pediatrician has done so 
far.

"This is the pediatrician chosen by the parents, he is based in Sydney and 
he is watching everything and documenting everything if there is the need 
for any more publication then it is documented here in Australia."

She said baby Eve, who recently celebrated her first birthday, was doing 
well and living in Israel with her parents.

AAP

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peter


-- 
"Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress." Copyright 1992, Frank Rice


Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
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