The Ottawa Citizen (Canada), Dec. 19, 2002
http://canada.com/
TORONTO — A Quebec-based religious sect claims it will deliver the first human clone within 14 days, CTV News reported yesterday.
The Raelians, who set up a human cloning company called Clonaid and began offering a cloning machine for sale last May, say the cloned baby — a girl — will be born before the end of the month, CTV reported.
The director of Clonaid, Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, told CTV they had implanted 10 cloned embryos this spring.
Dr. Boisselier said five miscarried, but the other five are “doing well,” the network reported. The baby, said to be the genetic duplicate of a U.S. woman in her 30s, will reportedly be born by caesarean section at an undisclosed facility.
Some experts say it’s possible the Raelian claim is true.
“It has been possible after many many attempts to clone other mammalian species … there’s no reason to think a human being would be very different from other mammals,” said Professor Lawrence Smith of Université de Montréal.
The Raelian Movement was founded in France by Rael, who was once a French racing-car driver known as Claude Vorilhon, who claimed he was contacted by an extraterrestrial on Dec. 13, 1973.
The extraterrestrial told Rael he was a clone of the supreme extraterrestrial being and prophets including Jesus and Mohammed. The group claims to have 55,000 members in 84 countries.