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CNN Live Today

Cloned Baby?: Medical Explainer

Aired December 27, 2002 - 10:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Just about 45 minutes ago, a new chapter in cloning was opened and a Pandora's box of ethical and medical questions. A scientist announced the birth of the world's first cloned baby.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGITTE BOISSELIER, CLONAID: I'm very, very pleased to announce that the first baby clone is born. She was born yesterday at 11:55 a.m. in the country where she was born. So, this will not give you more details about the location. She is fine. We call her Eve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: It is a birth announcement that is being greeted with skepticism and concern.

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from New York with more on that.

Dr. Gupta, what we haven't heard yet is about this verification. And that could take about a week, correct?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Fredricka.

That's exactly right. That's what the issue is in a lot of people's minds. We really didn't see any proof of this, and this is certainly a woman, Brigitte Boisselier, that we've heard from before. She's talked about wanting to clone. She's talked about the fact that she might do it this year. So, in some ways, this announcement wasn't a huge surprise.

I will say that what scientist have been sort of most -- most awaiting is the proof that, in fact, this is a genetic clone.

Also, is the baby healthy? We obviously didn't see the baby, and that's obviously a concern as well.

You know, when Dolly the sheep was cloned, it took about 276 tries before they actually got a sheep that was actually carried all the way through pregnancy. How many humans would it take and did it take to possibly get here? She was asked that question, and she said there were 10 implantations done of which 5 were actually carried through to pregnancy.

Fredricka, that adds up to 50 percent, which is higher than any other really fertility technique, such as IVF, that we know of now. The numbers aren't quite adding up. We don't have any proof, we don't know how this baby is doing. And also, we don't know how this baby will do in the future. You know, with a lot of the animals that have been cloned, they quickly developed serious medical problems. Will that happen to this human infant, if in fact this did happen yesterday, as she said? We'll have to wait and see.

A lot of unanswered questions as of yet -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Brigitte Boisselier, she classified this as a successful science project. She said, you know, this is a project that will allow couples to conceive, for those couples who haven't been able to. And she used the example of this couple who birthed Eve, as that -- that they weren't able to conceive before. It was a fertility issue.

GUPTA: Right, Fredricka. And I want to be as objective as possible here, but I think it's worth pointing out and worth noting again and again who the Raelians are and which organization Clonaid, this actually represents. We're actually talking about a group of people who believe that the population of the earth was, in fact, populated by aliens who cloned themselves. In fact, what their goals are as part of Clonaid, as part of the Raelians, is actually to inhabit the earth with people who could -- quote/unquote -- "live forever by continuously cloning themselves."

That is what they say one of the goals of this organization is. They want to set up an embassy here on earth -- an embassy here on earth for aliens to come visit. These are the sort of things they also say in addition to all of the things you heard today at this press conference.

So, no surprise then, Fredricka, that people are being very careful, very cautious. They want the proof, they want to know how the baby is doing, they want to know how the baby will do. We didn't see any of those things yet today, and that's something that everyone is going to be anticipating.

WHITFIELD: In fact, this group, the Raelians, they claim that they were visited by aliens, correct, back in the '70s, and that message was conveyed to them that just scientifically engineer life? And that is the way you continue to procreate?

GUPTA: That's right. And not only did they say that, they believe the first humans -- and interestingly, they named this baby, Eve. They believe that the first humans that actually inhabited earth were, in fact, genetic clones of those aliens. So, preposterous I think is a word that would come to some people's minds, just outrageous.

But also, if this scientific revelation that Ms. Boisselier actually revealed today is true, this would just really shatter a lot of the scientific beliefs that we have had about cloning. People thought this was going to be a lot harder.

Has the bar forever been lowered in terms of how easy it is to clone a human being? Again, we don't know the answers to those questions, but that is the question on a lot of scientist's and a lot of people's minds.

WHITFIELD: Well, but certainly, it is almost implying that it is pretty easy, and that she alluded to five in all. Four other births that are likely to take place, one in northern Europe. She said there is also two Asian couples, and then one in North America as well.

GUPTA: Yes, and to be fair -- to be fair, Fredricka, there has been a lot of progress in terms of the scientific techniques required to actually clone either an animal or a human being since Dolly. So, the numbers are probably going to be better than the 276 attempts that we heard it took before Dolly was born. But we're talking about a 50 percent success rate is what she's quoting right now.

And incidentally, she's also almost talking about creating a factory around the world, setting up these clinics on every continent, implanting 20 more just over the next month alone. I mean, what she is sort of describing, what she's described and describing for the future is just absolutely remarkable.

Again, though, I keep coming back to this. None of it has been proven. We don't know how this baby is doing, we don't know how this baby is going to do. People need to be very cautious about this.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dr. Gupta, thanks very much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: We'll be seeing you a bit later on over the next couple of hours.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired December 27, 2002 - 10:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Just about 45 minutes ago, a new chapter in cloning was opened and a Pandora's box of ethical and medical questions. A scientist announced the birth of the world's first cloned baby.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGITTE BOISSELIER, CLONAID: I'm very, very pleased to announce that the first baby clone is born. She was born yesterday at 11:55 a.m. in the country where she was born. So, this will not give you more details about the location. She is fine. We call her Eve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: It is a birth announcement that is being greeted with skepticism and concern.

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from New York with more on that.

Dr. Gupta, what we haven't heard yet is about this verification. And that could take about a week, correct?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Fredricka.

That's exactly right. That's what the issue is in a lot of people's minds. We really didn't see any proof of this, and this is certainly a woman, Brigitte Boisselier, that we've heard from before. She's talked about wanting to clone. She's talked about the fact that she might do it this year. So, in some ways, this announcement wasn't a huge surprise.

I will say that what scientist have been sort of most -- most awaiting is the proof that, in fact, this is a genetic clone.

Also, is the baby healthy? We obviously didn't see the baby, and that's obviously a concern as well.

You know, when Dolly the sheep was cloned, it took about 276 tries before they actually got a sheep that was actually carried all the way through pregnancy. How many humans would it take and did it take to possibly get here? She was asked that question, and she said there were 10 implantations done of which 5 were actually carried through to pregnancy.

Fredricka, that adds up to 50 percent, which is higher than any other really fertility technique, such as IVF, that we know of now. The numbers aren't quite adding up. We don't have any proof, we don't know how this baby is doing. And also, we don't know how this baby will do in the future. You know, with a lot of the animals that have been cloned, they quickly developed serious medical problems. Will that happen to this human infant, if in fact this did happen yesterday, as she said? We'll have to wait and see.

A lot of unanswered questions as of yet -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Brigitte Boisselier, she classified this as a successful science project. She said, you know, this is a project that will allow couples to conceive, for those couples who haven't been able to. And she used the example of this couple who birthed Eve, as that -- that they weren't able to conceive before. It was a fertility issue.

GUPTA: Right, Fredricka. And I want to be as objective as possible here, but I think it's worth pointing out and worth noting again and again who the Raelians are and which organization Clonaid, this actually represents. We're actually talking about a group of people who believe that the population of the earth was, in fact, populated by aliens who cloned themselves. In fact, what their goals are as part of Clonaid, as part of the Raelians, is actually to inhabit the earth with people who could -- quote/unquote -- "live forever by continuously cloning themselves."

That is what they say one of the goals of this organization is. They want to set up an embassy here on earth -- an embassy here on earth for aliens to come visit. These are the sort of things they also say in addition to all of the things you heard today at this press conference.

So, no surprise then, Fredricka, that people are being very careful, very cautious. They want the proof, they want to know how the baby is doing, they want to know how the baby will do. We didn't see any of those things yet today, and that's something that everyone is going to be anticipating.

WHITFIELD: In fact, this group, the Raelians, they claim that they were visited by aliens, correct, back in the '70s, and that message was conveyed to them that just scientifically engineer life? And that is the way you continue to procreate?

GUPTA: That's right. And not only did they say that, they believe the first humans -- and interestingly, they named this baby, Eve. They believe that the first humans that actually inhabited earth were, in fact, genetic clones of those aliens. So, preposterous I think is a word that would come to some people's minds, just outrageous.

But also, if this scientific revelation that Ms. Boisselier actually revealed today is true, this would just really shatter a lot of the scientific beliefs that we have had about cloning. People thought this was going to be a lot harder.

Has the bar forever been lowered in terms of how easy it is to clone a human being? Again, we don't know the answers to those questions, but that is the question on a lot of scientist's and a lot of people's minds.

WHITFIELD: Well, but certainly, it is almost implying that it is pretty easy, and that she alluded to five in all. Four other births that are likely to take place, one in northern Europe. She said there is also two Asian couples, and then one in North America as well.

GUPTA: Yes, and to be fair -- to be fair, Fredricka, there has been a lot of progress in terms of the scientific techniques required to actually clone either an animal or a human being since Dolly. So, the numbers are probably going to be better than the 276 attempts that we heard it took before Dolly was born. But we're talking about a 50 percent success rate is what she's quoting right now.

And incidentally, she's also almost talking about creating a factory around the world, setting up these clinics on every continent, implanting 20 more just over the next month alone. I mean, what she is sort of describing, what she's described and describing for the future is just absolutely remarkable.

Again, though, I keep coming back to this. None of it has been proven. We don't know how this baby is doing, we don't know how this baby is going to do. People need to be very cautious about this.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dr. Gupta, thanks very much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: We'll be seeing you a bit later on over the next couple of hours.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.