More claims have been made that the first cloned human babies are to be born imminently, adding to claims made last week by Italian fertility doctor Severino Antinori.
The new claims were made, first, by Brigitte Boisselier, scientific director of Clonaid, a company linked to the Raelian cult. She said that the first of five women carrying cloned embryos - an American woman - is due to give birth to a girl by the end of this year. She claimed that ten women originally had cloned embryos transferred to them, but only five of the women became pregnant. Clonaid will allow independent verification that the baby is a clone, she added.
Meanwhile, Panayiotis Zavos, former partner of Antinori, has announced that he too is pursuing a cloning programme and currently undertaking research with a European specialist in animal cloning. He claims to already have stored cells from seven people, both males and females, who wish to be cloned. Eggs for the cloning procedure will, he says, be donated by women living near the secret locations where the cloning procedures are to take place. Up to 40 eggs, emptied of their own genetic material, will be used for each person to be cloned, and the strongest embryos will be implanted, said Zavos, 'probably in the first two weeks of 2003'.
Zavos added that whether the babies produced are clones can be verified by checking their DNA. He said 'we will not announce to the world that we have a cloned embryo unless we can prove it'. However, Zavos' claims have also been met with scepticism. Dr Harry Griffin, from the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, questioned whether Zavos had given any more information than Antinori had.
Sources and References
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UFO cult claims first human clone
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Baby-cloning race has new frontrunner
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Rival joins race to clone first human
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