For those that doesn't know:
"Clonaid Has 2,000 on Cloning List, Founder Says
Mon Dec 30, 1:40 PM ET Add Health - Reuters to My Yahoo!
MIAMI (Reuters) - The founder of the Raelian religion, whose adherents claim to have cloned a human, said a company he created has 2,000 people waiting to have themselves or a loved one cloned, a newspaper reported Monday.
Claude Vorilhon, a French native know as Rael to his followers who founded Clonaid in 1997, said in an hour-long interview Sunday in Miami that the company has a list of people willing to pay $200,000 each for cloning, the Miami Herald reported.
Brigitte Boisselier, the head of Clonaid, announced on Friday in Florida the company had produced the first human clone with the birth of a baby girl called Eve to a 31-year-old American woman. But she offered no proof.
The announcement drew immediate skepticism from experts and renewed questions on the ethics of human cloning.
Boisselier told CNN the 7-pound (3 kg) newborn and her parents would return home Monday but the location would be kept secret.
The Raelians, who claim 55,000 followers around the world, believe life on Earth was sparked by extraterrestrials who arrived 25,000 years ago and created humans through cloning.
Vorilhon, who describes himself as a prophet, told the Herald that he had distanced himself from Clonaid since its founding but expected the company to make money and to ultimately create eternal life.
"It's a commercial company and her goal is to make as much money as possible, and I hope she will make as much money as possible," Vorilhon said of Boisselier.
Vorilhon said he does not know the identity of the alleged cloned baby or her American mother.
He said scientists may develop technology within 25 years to create a full-grown human clone in hours and to "upload" the contents of a person's brain into the clone.
"It's a very beautiful step, but it's just a step," Vorilhon, 56, told the Herald, referring to the alleged cloning of Eve. "The ultimate goal is to give eternal life to humanity through cloning."
Vorilhon, who had his hair in a topknot and was dressed in what the Herald described as "white, space-age clothing from head to toe," claims to have been contacted on Dec. 13, 1973 outside Paris by aliens who told him that life on Earth had been created in laboratories by scientifically advanced people from space.
He told the Herald that Raelians are at the vanguard of science and philosophy.
"The problem is that you have men of today with tomorrow's technology and yesterday's philosophy," he said.
"People are lost and misguided by primitive religions...they are trying to slow down science. Nothing can stop science."
Cattle, mice, sheep and other animals have been cloned with mixed success. Some have displayed defects later in life and scientists fear the same could happen with cloned humans. "
Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20021230/hl_nm/cloning_clonaid_dc_1
Opinions Please:
"Clonaid Has 2,000 on Cloning List, Founder Says
Mon Dec 30, 1:40 PM ET Add Health - Reuters to My Yahoo!
MIAMI (Reuters) - The founder of the Raelian religion, whose adherents claim to have cloned a human, said a company he created has 2,000 people waiting to have themselves or a loved one cloned, a newspaper reported Monday.
Claude Vorilhon, a French native know as Rael to his followers who founded Clonaid in 1997, said in an hour-long interview Sunday in Miami that the company has a list of people willing to pay $200,000 each for cloning, the Miami Herald reported.
Brigitte Boisselier, the head of Clonaid, announced on Friday in Florida the company had produced the first human clone with the birth of a baby girl called Eve to a 31-year-old American woman. But she offered no proof.
The announcement drew immediate skepticism from experts and renewed questions on the ethics of human cloning.
Boisselier told CNN the 7-pound (3 kg) newborn and her parents would return home Monday but the location would be kept secret.
The Raelians, who claim 55,000 followers around the world, believe life on Earth was sparked by extraterrestrials who arrived 25,000 years ago and created humans through cloning.
Vorilhon, who describes himself as a prophet, told the Herald that he had distanced himself from Clonaid since its founding but expected the company to make money and to ultimately create eternal life.
"It's a commercial company and her goal is to make as much money as possible, and I hope she will make as much money as possible," Vorilhon said of Boisselier.
Vorilhon said he does not know the identity of the alleged cloned baby or her American mother.
He said scientists may develop technology within 25 years to create a full-grown human clone in hours and to "upload" the contents of a person's brain into the clone.
"It's a very beautiful step, but it's just a step," Vorilhon, 56, told the Herald, referring to the alleged cloning of Eve. "The ultimate goal is to give eternal life to humanity through cloning."
Vorilhon, who had his hair in a topknot and was dressed in what the Herald described as "white, space-age clothing from head to toe," claims to have been contacted on Dec. 13, 1973 outside Paris by aliens who told him that life on Earth had been created in laboratories by scientifically advanced people from space.
He told the Herald that Raelians are at the vanguard of science and philosophy.
"The problem is that you have men of today with tomorrow's technology and yesterday's philosophy," he said.
"People are lost and misguided by primitive religions...they are trying to slow down science. Nothing can stop science."
Cattle, mice, sheep and other animals have been cloned with mixed success. Some have displayed defects later in life and scientists fear the same could happen with cloned humans. "
Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20021230/hl_nm/cloning_clonaid_dc_1
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(as seen in a stargate ep 