Posted on 12/26/2002 6:02:33 PM PST by HAL9000
Birth of a small girl obtained by cloning, according to the sect of the raéliens
Friday December 27, 2002 - 1h49 GMT
MIAMI (the United States), 26 déc (AFP) - the scientist Frenchwoman and member of the sect of the raéliens Brigitte Boisselier affirmed Thursday evening with the AFP to have put at the world a baby obtained by the technique of the cloning.
The baby, a small girl, came in the world "today" (Thursday) by Caesarean. "Ca they passed very well", was restricted to affirm Mrs. Boisselier, president of the company of human cloning Clonaid, joined by telephone in Miami (Florida, south-east of the United States).
The effort of the raéliens to put at the world the first cloné baby having been realized in the greatest secrecy, it was not possible, in the absence of a scientific publication in the code of practice, to obtain for the moment an unspecified independent scientific confirmation that the baby was well a clone.
Questioned on the circumstances of this birth, it scientific Frenchwoman refused to give further information immediately more, in particular the birthplace.
"I prefer not in saying more for the moment", has it says, by adding that it would make a public presentation Friday in Florida.
It did not specify either if it would introduce the baby at this occasion.
November 27, Mrs. Boisselier had indicated to the AFP that this birth was awaited by an American couple.
If this birth were confirmed of independent scientific source, it would be about the first baby obtained by the discussed technique of the human cloning and whose birth will have been publicly announced.
I seriously doubt it too, because I have very serious doubts about the whole report. I also have no opposition to cloning, in principle, but the benefits of cloning as a means of reproduction allude me. Nevertheless, I suppose it is going to happen, and I believe, if it does, it will be because someone perceives some benefit in it, which it could be.
I am opposed to all the paranoid hysteria that wants to use government to prevent this and other biological research, however. And thank you for a nicely reasoned response.
Hank
If this story is true, I worry about the future health of the little girl. According to the articles I've read, the cloning process doesn't fully restore the potency of the genes, leaving the clone with "old genes". We have all the genes we had starting with conception but they aren't all turned on anymore (eg. those that control development of our heart, arms, legs, etc.). The cloning process has to reset the clocks on all these genes. If a clone has been successfully delivered it means that the vast majority of the genes were reset.
Now the worry is that little sections of the baby's genes may have problems. Lot's of serious diseases are the result of microdeletions in the genetic code. Most of these cause problems in the most complex part of our bodies, our brains, resulting in mental retardation.
I really fear for this little girl's future. She isn't a lab animal that can be euthanized if problems arise. We are obliged to care for her just like any other person.
Good point .. there were a lot of problems before Dolly was born and all of a sudden they have the first clone baby?
Something in this story IMO is missing
very intresting angle you brought up here.
Since a clone is a replicant of someone who was born with a soul therefore the 'clone' is devoid of a God-Given soul and the 'body' though technically 'alive'.
It may be open to become a vessel of all sorts of evil spirits/demons who wish to inhabit it to spread even more anti-God Anti-Christ doctrines.
It may be the beginning of something even more scarier than hollywood can imagine.
Photo from Rael.org doesn't look much like a nursery:
I'll wager that this human cloning announcement is as phony as Ms. Brigitte.
Big Cloning News Promised Friday
Scientists Remain Skeptical Of Claims
NEW YORK -- Another announcement is expected Friday from a company that recently said it was producing the world's first human clone.The company, Clonaid, won't say whether it will claim at the Florida briefing that a baby girl is genetically identical to her 30-year-old mother.
But a company spokeswoman says the company will have what it calls an independent inspector take DNA evidence from the baby and mother.
Skepticism about the project is based not only on the scientific challenges, but on the fact the company has connections with a group called the Raelians. Its founder, Claude Vorilhon, claims aliens visiting him in the 1970s revealed they'd created all life on Earth through genetic engineering.
Cloning is not specifically outlawed in the United States, but the Food and Drug Administration contends it must approve any human experiments.
Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Shades of "zombies," where to you get this superstious stuff. Please state an authority for, "God-Given soul," as though the soul were something different from and separated from an individual living human being.
Hank
Theologically, there are significant doctrinal issues regarding the spirit. Some hold that the body, soul and spirit become life upon conception. Others hold that the bodily life might begin either at conception or by the first trimester. Some hold the spirit is created by God immediately upon the birth and removal of the baby from the womb.
Here is a hypothetical stressing the importance of the issues.
If the spirit is a discernible feature of man from other creatures and is given or created and instilled in the human upon physical birth and if that gift is not mechanically undeerstood by man, then the cloning of the human body might result in a receptacle capable of receiving a spirit, but perhaps not granted by God as it is not a natural birth.
This would result in a new race of beings, persons, lacking spirit, without opportunity for salvation, yet as an automaton, a mimicry of man.
The laws and institutions of human domain might not be approprately attributed to the domain of the clone. Worse, disembodied spirits might have access to the same clone which without previous spirit, could become host to something ungodly.
Considering the things of the spirit which God has provided to man according to His plan are also considered foolishness to those who do not believe, then this mechanism will present some doctrinally challenging scenarios. Mechanically and spiritually if not by His plan, some even more heinous waters might be unleashed. IMHO, this isn't just a lab experiment with some possible humanistic repurcussions, but might be a much more pregnant problem.
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