Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company  
The Boston Globe
July 25, 2002, Thursday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A15

LENGTH: 615 words

HEADLINE: WOMAN CARRIES HUMAN CLONE, GROUP SAYS

BYLINE: By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff

BODY:
A fringe religious movement's South Korea-based scientific team yesterday said they had implanted a cloned human embryo in a woman, the latest of a string of similar uncomfirmed experiments to emerge from the underground field of human cloning.

The Raelian Movement's chief scientist refused to confirm details of the team's report, but said that they soon would make an announcement that numerous scientists and governments around the world have been dreading.

   "The only thing I can tell you is that, yes, we have done implantations and the next announcement will be the birth of a baby," said Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, director of Clonaid, the scientific wing of the Swiss-headquartered Raelian Movement, which believes humans are clones of God-like aliens destined to revisit Earth.

Four months ago, a maverick Italian scientist also announced he had implanted a cloned embryo, and since has said that five female patients under his care have been implanted.

No mother has delivered a cloned human but several rogue groups, including the Raelians, appear bent on becoming the first to cross this controversial ethical barrier. If any of the recent claims are true, several clone babies are due this winter.

None of the claims have been confirmed by independent scientists, but many fertility specialists believe these groups possess the ability to create cloned babies. They fear all the infants would suffer grievous health problems caused by the cloning process, in which eggs are filled with adult DNA, grown to embryo stage, then implanted in females.

That procedure, called reproductive cloning, is different than therapeutic cloning, where stem cells are plucked from week-old cloned embryos that sit in laboratory dishes. Most scientists support therapeutic cloning, convinced the resulting stem cells can be used to cure a range of diseases.

The latest reproductive cloning report emerged in the Korean press, which reported that BioFusion Tech, a South Korean firm owned by the Raelian Movement, had implanted a clone. The Raelians also run Clonaid, which oversees BioFusion.

BioFusion officals yesterday said three women had been part of their experiment, conducted outside of South Korea, and one returned to the country pregnant.

"She has a clone embryo which was implanted into her about two months ago," BioFusion spokesman Kwak Gi-Hwa told the Agence France-Presse wire service. "The operation was carried out outside South Korea and therefore, the government has no right to meddle with it. She would leave the country if the authorities continue harassing us."

The Korean government is investigating the matter, reported the Korea Times. Human cloning remains legal in South Korea; a bill that would ban the practice awaits parliamentary approval.

In the United States, Congress has been unable to pass cloning legislation, with lawmakers divided over whether to criminalize all cloning or just reproductive cloning. Though reproductive cloning remains legal in many nations, it is a field dominated by rumor and unsubstantiated claims.

In February, Kentucky fertility specialist Panayiotis Zavos told the Globe his team had selected 10 infertile couples for a human cloning project, predicting success by late this year or early 2003. He refused to comment yesterday, and it's unclear whether he has succesfully implanted any embryos.

In April, Italian doctor Severino Antinori said that a patient was eight weeks pregnant - the first such claim. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune in June, Antinori said he'd overseen five pregnancies, with at least one birth expected in December.

Raja Mishra can be reached by email at rmishra@globe.com

LOAD-DATE: July 25, 2002