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CNN Live Sunday

Interview With Brian Alexander

Aired December 29, 2002 - 18:15   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.


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And now to the buzz story of the week. A group called the Raelians says it has cloned the first human. They've had a lot to say about it but they haven't had a lot of proof to offer just yet. It doesn't really help their credibility when you learn that the Raelians believe space aliens created humans to begin with.
So, check this out. This is a cover of "Wired" magazine from last February. The headline above reads, "Someone will clone a human in the next 12 months." Brian Alexander wrote the story and he joins us now from San Diego, California, Brian, good to see you.

BRIAN ALEXANDER, WIRED MAGAZINE: Hi, Carol.

LIN: Pretty amazing that you made that prediction last year. Do you think the Raelians actually have come through?

ALEXANDER: No, I don't think the Raelians have come through at all. It's always been my contention that whoever would be the first to clone a human being wouldn't actually talk about it and there are a lot of reasons, both scientific and also from a PR standpoint why I think the Raelians have not done it. I could be wrong but if I were a betting man, I would not bet on the Raelians.

LIN: Really? Now, you've actually covered them. You've spend some time at their camp, right?

ALEXANDER: Right.

LIN: What is it about them that lacks credibility other than what I said in terms of just their belief in space aliens and the like?

ALEXANDER: Well, their belief in space aliens really is almost irrelevant to whether or not they could clone somebody. What I think ruins their credibility is the statements that have been made over the last few days that they've managed to achieve five pregnancies, one of which has already come to term. That would instantly make them the most successful cloning group ever and that includes all the scientists that have tried to clone all the animals.

They just don't get those kinds of success rates, and don't forget they would have had to start this nine months ago. So, almost from the time they started they were instantly successful. That's why I doubt it.

LIN: All right, so why do you think they are actually making this claim? I mean don't you think a scientific community is going to demand that they produce this baby and I understand that this baby, it's a baby girl.

ALEXANDER: Right.

LIN: Her name is Eve.

ALEXANDER: Right.

LIN: That she's heading back to the United States and may be here as soon as tomorrow. I mean do you expect that they're going to put her forth so that some DNA samples can be taken?

ALEXANDER: Well, if they want to be believed they're going to have to do that and they're going to have to allow real skeptics to do the testing. Something interesting is that they could have done this testing right away. They could have used umbilical cord blood, for example, to match DNA from mom and baby and they could have given an answer at their press conference and that wasn't done.

Now, I'm not saying they didn't do it. It's possible that they did because cloning a human being is certainly very possible, but it seems very sketchy to me at the moment. Now, maybe they'll come up with some great proof but I want to have an expert who doesn't believe them do the testing.

LIN: Do you think, what you know about the Raelians, do you think that they're going to allow that to happen?

ALEXANDER: You know the Raelians have played fast and loose with the facts. They fibbed to me on several points. They've actually been trying to talk about cloning since immediately after the birth of Dolly the sheep in Scotland. They claimed to have labs in the Bahamas that never existed. They claimed to have a team of experts that the numbers of that team fluctuated over the time that they've been talking about cloning, so there's no way to know until they actually make, produce a baby and give real data.

LIN: Right. You know, Brian, I read your article and taking a look at some of the compelling photos that were in it, we have one of Marian Vucetich (ph). I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing her name correctly.

ALEXANDER: Right, Marian Vucetich, right.

LIN: Here she is an elderly woman sitting on what I think was her son's, her deceased son's bed holding his picture saying that she apparently took some skin samples from him and hopes one day that she'll be able to clone her son.

ALEXANDER: Right.

LIN: You know the hope that you must have seen in these people that this actually will happen someday and could actually happen for them, it's almost painful to read about. ALEXANDER: Yes, but cloning has such a freakish factor about it because Congress has called, used words like baby farms and copying people and so on. All of that is total science fiction. Cloning in the end would make a baby. Now, there are some people who are misguided, who believe that cloning will recreate a person. There's no such thing as making a copy of a person, and I think that's falling away.

As more and more of this discussion happens, I think people are beginning to realize that the sort of great scenarios of cloned Hitlers or a team of Michael Jordans is always going to be science fiction. It's just not possible to do it.

LIN: Right, right. Well, hope springs eternal for these people. Thank you very much Brian Alexander of "Wired" magazine.

ALEXANDER: You're welcome.

LIN: Good luck on the book that you're working on.

ALEXANDER: Thanks very much.

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 29, 2002 - 18:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And now to the buzz story of the week. A group called the Raelians says it has cloned the first human. They've had a lot to say about it but they haven't had a lot of proof to offer just yet. It doesn't really help their credibility when you learn that the Raelians believe space aliens created humans to begin with.
So, check this out. This is a cover of "Wired" magazine from last February. The headline above reads, "Someone will clone a human in the next 12 months." Brian Alexander wrote the story and he joins us now from San Diego, California, Brian, good to see you.

BRIAN ALEXANDER, WIRED MAGAZINE: Hi, Carol.

LIN: Pretty amazing that you made that prediction last year. Do you think the Raelians actually have come through?

ALEXANDER: No, I don't think the Raelians have come through at all. It's always been my contention that whoever would be the first to clone a human being wouldn't actually talk about it and there are a lot of reasons, both scientific and also from a PR standpoint why I think the Raelians have not done it. I could be wrong but if I were a betting man, I would not bet on the Raelians.

LIN: Really? Now, you've actually covered them. You've spend some time at their camp, right?

ALEXANDER: Right.

LIN: What is it about them that lacks credibility other than what I said in terms of just their belief in space aliens and the like?

ALEXANDER: Well, their belief in space aliens really is almost irrelevant to whether or not they could clone somebody. What I think ruins their credibility is the statements that have been made over the last few days that they've managed to achieve five pregnancies, one of which has already come to term. That would instantly make them the most successful cloning group ever and that includes all the scientists that have tried to clone all the animals.

They just don't get those kinds of success rates, and don't forget they would have had to start this nine months ago. So, almost from the time they started they were instantly successful. That's why I doubt it.

LIN: All right, so why do you think they are actually making this claim? I mean don't you think a scientific community is going to demand that they produce this baby and I understand that this baby, it's a baby girl.

ALEXANDER: Right.

LIN: Her name is Eve.

ALEXANDER: Right.

LIN: That she's heading back to the United States and may be here as soon as tomorrow. I mean do you expect that they're going to put her forth so that some DNA samples can be taken?

ALEXANDER: Well, if they want to be believed they're going to have to do that and they're going to have to allow real skeptics to do the testing. Something interesting is that they could have done this testing right away. They could have used umbilical cord blood, for example, to match DNA from mom and baby and they could have given an answer at their press conference and that wasn't done.

Now, I'm not saying they didn't do it. It's possible that they did because cloning a human being is certainly very possible, but it seems very sketchy to me at the moment. Now, maybe they'll come up with some great proof but I want to have an expert who doesn't believe them do the testing.

LIN: Do you think, what you know about the Raelians, do you think that they're going to allow that to happen?

ALEXANDER: You know the Raelians have played fast and loose with the facts. They fibbed to me on several points. They've actually been trying to talk about cloning since immediately after the birth of Dolly the sheep in Scotland. They claimed to have labs in the Bahamas that never existed. They claimed to have a team of experts that the numbers of that team fluctuated over the time that they've been talking about cloning, so there's no way to know until they actually make, produce a baby and give real data.

LIN: Right. You know, Brian, I read your article and taking a look at some of the compelling photos that were in it, we have one of Marian Vucetich (ph). I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing her name correctly.

ALEXANDER: Right, Marian Vucetich, right.

LIN: Here she is an elderly woman sitting on what I think was her son's, her deceased son's bed holding his picture saying that she apparently took some skin samples from him and hopes one day that she'll be able to clone her son.

ALEXANDER: Right.

LIN: You know the hope that you must have seen in these people that this actually will happen someday and could actually happen for them, it's almost painful to read about. ALEXANDER: Yes, but cloning has such a freakish factor about it because Congress has called, used words like baby farms and copying people and so on. All of that is total science fiction. Cloning in the end would make a baby. Now, there are some people who are misguided, who believe that cloning will recreate a person. There's no such thing as making a copy of a person, and I think that's falling away.

As more and more of this discussion happens, I think people are beginning to realize that the sort of great scenarios of cloned Hitlers or a team of Michael Jordans is always going to be science fiction. It's just not possible to do it.

LIN: Right, right. Well, hope springs eternal for these people. Thank you very much Brian Alexander of "Wired" magazine.

ALEXANDER: You're welcome.

LIN: Good luck on the book that you're working on.

ALEXANDER: Thanks very much.

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