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CNN Saturday Morning News

U.S. Government Prevents Human Cloning Research

Aired June 30, 2001 - 08:09   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: On the outer edges of the medical front, we turn now to the lightning rod issue of human cloning. The federal government is apparently making sure it won't be done in the United States. CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has the story of a scientist who says she is moving her cloning research outside the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The woman on the left, Brigitte Boisselier, says she plans on cloning a human being in the next year.

BRIGITTE BOISSELIER, BIOCHEMIST: I think we have everything we need to proceed now with cloning.

COHEN: But now Boisselier says she plans on moving her cloning operations somewhere outside the United States. She won't say where. She said that's because earlier this year officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration visited her lab and told her to stop all efforts to clone a human. "I have no intention to prove if they, the FDA, are right or wrong," Boisselier told CNN. "But I'm confident we would win in court. But I'm not interested in a battle."

Boisselier and her daughter are members of a controversial group called The Raelians. They call themselves a religion. Some are skeptical about their scientific abilities, since the group asserts, among other things, that all human life was created by aliens.

But the Raelians say they're serious that if the science exists to make Dolly, the cloned sheep, then it would work for humans, too.

BOISSELIER: A scientist and as the person who has been fighting for that to happen for years. I'm telling you. I'm warning also.

COHEN: Many scientists are horrified. They say the vast majority of animal clones attempted so far have had horrible birth defects.

DR. JONATHAN HILL, CORNELL UNIVERSITY: Their liver, their lungs, their heart, their blood vessels, their placental vessels and the placenta itself are often abnormal at birth.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COHEN: Now, in an upcoming issue, "U.S. News and World Report" will be reporting that a federal grand jury in Syracuse, New York has subpoenaed phone records and other types of records from Brigitte Boisselier's home.

O'BRIEN: Well, that's interesting. That probably gives us a clue then as to where this lab is located, heretofore a secret, right?

COHEN: Well, not really. That doesn't help. I mean just because it's hard to know.

O'BRIEN: Hard to know. All right. Well, let's talk about this group for just a moment. Give us a little back story here on the Raelians and while you do that, if you could tell us how much scientific heft they really have. Are they really equipped to succeed at what they attempt to do?

COHEN: Well, many people believe that any group that believes, as they do, and they state this proudly on their Web site, that aliens have created all human life, many people say how much scientific heft could a group like that have? But Brigitte Boisselier really does have a Ph.D. and really has taught at universities and she says that she can do it and that her group can do it.

They also say that they have 50 young women who have volunteered to be surrogates for this clone. It's really impossible to completely evaluate whether or not they can do it. But they say, they certainly have the passion to do that. We know it. We know that's true.

O'BRIEN: All right, is it safe to come to the conclusion that because the FDA has come and paid them a visit that there must be something there scientifically? In other words, they might be on the right track toward cloning a human eventually?

COHEN: Well, the FDA certainly is concerned about them. The FDA has also, apparently, paid visits to some other groups, and also a committee in Congress has asked the Raelians to testify. So certainly there are plenty of people who are taking them at least somewhat seriously. Now, it's important to think a little bit about what the FDA did.

The FDA came and said to them we have jurisdiction over human cloning so if you are doing any cloning here, we have jurisdiction and you need to apply to us for permission to conduct that kind of experiment and that's what made the Raelians say you know what, we think we're just better off in another country.

O'BRIEN: The Raelians, let's talk about them for a minute. They believe, as you mentioned, among other things, that aliens brought DNA code to the planet, thus creating the human species, and this is part of their effort to maintain or create some sort of immortality. Can you explain that a little bit and where that fits into what they're doing right now?

COHEN: Exactly. They call themselves a religious group and they believe with religious passion that cloning is something that is supposed to happen, that it's sort of preordained, if you will, in some way. And what happened was that a family came to them, a family with a lot of money who had lost a child when the child was just a baby. And they said we lost this baby and we've saved some genetic material from the baby and we would like you to recreate a, basically a delayed twin is how they put it. They don't say a clone all the time. They sometimes will say a delayed twin.

And they don't see anything wrong with that. They say twins exist all the time. There are clones all over the planet. They're called genetically identical twins. And all they're doing is a delayed twin. That's how they see it.

O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Elizabeth Cohen, we would like to ask you to stick around for a while. As a matter of fact, we'll even buy you a cup of coffee if you do.

COHEN: Oh, how nice.

O'BRIEN: Elizabeth will be back a little bit later to join our roundtable discussion with our correspondents, a special edition of Reporter's Notebook. Elizabeth will be talking about what we've just been talking about, taking your questions about human cloning, the ethical implications, can it achieve some sort of immortality, all kinds of vexing issues there. Kate Snow will also be along to cover the patients bill of rights and where that stands on Capitol Hill. And then Rea Blakey will take your questions on the vice president and his heart tests and troubles.

We've got a medical grab bag, if you will, so please send us your e-mails to wam@cnn.com. That stands for weekend a.m. for those of you who are curious.

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