Is ’Eve’ the First Human to be Cloned?

I was in Pakistan when the possibly stupendous (if true) story of the claim, by Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, of the company Clonaid--which was created by the Raelians (a group which believes that all human beings were created by extraterrestrials via advanced genetic engineering techniques)--that they had successfully created the first human clone first broke on December 26th. It was claimed by the Raelians that a female child had been cloned and was born to a mother in the USA on this date. The child was christened ’Eve’.

As expected the claim was sensational news and spread like quickfire throughout the world and the media lapped it up. It is an issue which sharply divides the public into two groups: those who are advocates of human cloning and those who are opposed to it on ethical or other grounds.

After the claim was made the company promised that scientific evidence would be made available ’soon’ to verify the claim (via a simple DNA test of the alleged clone and her ’parent’ to determine if their DNA was identical); however since then the group have gone back on their word citing legal procedures which have been initiated in the USA to protect the baby as their excuse as they are afraid that the cloned baby might well be taken away from her parents. Until this sensational claim is verified however by a panel of independent scientists, the veracity of this scientific achievement must be questioned. Most scientists are highly skeptical and until the evidence is produced it is perhaps the most sensible position to take, especially given the eccentricity of the Raelians and their New Age cult.

Despite the scepticism, ever since an astonished scientific community and world woke up to the news of Dolly the Sheep back in 1996--the first successful mammal to be cloned--there has been rising expectation that it was only a matter of time before the first human being is cloned. It is possible that that moment has now (just possibly) arrived with the birth of Eve. Indeed since Eve the Raelians claim to have successfully cloned another baby (to a lesbian couple in Europe) and say that three more clones will be born in January! To add further spice to this story, a rival controversial Italian scientist Dr. Antinioni. also claims that he will produce a clone in this month too!

If we look at the scientific evidence it soon becomes obvious that it IS scientifically possible to clone humans using the same technology as that used to produce Dolly. Indeed a wide range of experiments on cloning have been carried out since then on various animals as well as on humans. What is worrying though is that all of the literature indicates that a large number of cloned animals exhibit signs of ill-health and often have serious deformities and reduced life-spans as well as abnormally large internal organs leading to other complications and often painful death. Also it has been shown that a successful clone is produced after thousands of attempts and failures. Given these poor odds for a succesful clone being produced it is worrying that experiments to clone humans have already begun. What will this child be like? Will it have serious deformities as it grows older? Will its lifespan be dramatically reduced? Will it carry hidden genetic diseases? What will its mental capacity be like? All these are unknowns and because of these and other related factors calls for a ban on reproductive cloning (as opposed to therapeutic cloning) are gaining ground although how effective such a ban will be in stopping this research is open to question.

On the other hand those in favour of cloning say that it will open up a whole new arena of possibilities and that it will especially allow couples who cannot have a child due to infertility another option in addition to the current fertility treatments. Also people will be able to clone their loved ones and thus, for example, a young baby who has died can be cloned and ’replaced’. Cloning also offers many other exciting medical possibilities and, argue its proponents, it is a historical fact that almost all new medical advances have at first been opposed but after only a short time they are accepted and seen as normal--IVF being a prime example. Cloning too they say is the same.

And Eve may well be the harbinger of a Brave New World of infinite possibilities (or horrors). All that is remaining is the proof. The world awaits (myself included) with bated breath.