Justice Ministry probes reports that cloned child brought to Israel

The Jerusalem Post ^ | Jan. 30, 2003 | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Justice Ministry officials said Thursday they were investigating a claim by an Israeli spokesman for a religious sect that the first human clone has been brought to Israel.

In December, a company called Clonaid claimed it had performed the first successful cloning of a human, an infant it called Eve. The company has never delivered on a promise to present mother and child to DNA testing. The religious sect behind Clonaid, a group called the Raelians, believes life on Earth was started by space aliens.

Clonaid never released information the whereabouts of the alleged clone.

An Israeli spokesman for the Raelians, Kobi Drori, told Israel Radio on Thursday that the cloned infant was in Israel.

"I don't think she was smuggled into Israel. I think she was brought to Israel legally, apparently like every other citizen."

The alleged clone's presence in Israel would not pose a legal problem, Drori said. "Israeli law doesn't allow cloning, but doesn't prevent cloned people from entering the country," he said.

In Florida, Circuit Judge John Frusciante on Wednesday threw out a petition seeking the appointment of a guardian for the child, after Clonaid said the clone was in Israel.

But the judge warned Clonaid president Brigitte Boisselier: "You cannot pursue human cloning with impunity. All of us must not overlook the weakest among us."

Boisselier said she had seen the child only on videotape before the parents cut off contact with her last week. The company said it has since cloned two more babies, but has not provided any proof of their existence.

Boisselier said she maintains contact with the pediatrician "in charge of the baby." She said the doctor does not want to be identified.

Bernard Siegel, the attorney who had sought the guardian for the purported baby, said he hopes Israeli authorities investigate the case. "My great concern was the welfare of this child being hidden from the world," he said.

It was Boisselier who announced last month that Clonaid had produced a healthy human clone. At the time, she promised that independent DNA testing would soon prove the claim.

She later backed off, saying Eve's parents were frightened by the Florida guardianship petition and feared they would lose the baby if they made her available for testing.

Clonaid claimed last week that a third cloned child, a boy, had been born in Japan. It said clone No. 2, a girl, was born to a Dutch lesbian Jan. 3.

[Minutes]

sure

[Catspaw]

Pile of cow poop as far as the eye can see...and the nose can smell.