Are humans being cloned, is the great grandson of Dr. Frankenstein perpetuating the family legacy ? Well Dr. Frankenstein is fake, but human cloning apparently is not.
There are multiple claimants to Human Cloning. While it's true that some may fall into the realm of our old friend Dr. Frank N. Stein, others including a Canadian company with ties to a pseudo intellectual quasi religous sect known as the Raelians may be the real deal. The quasi religous sect is Raëlism and the company is called clonaid.
About Raëlism / Raelians
Claude Vorilhon [name changed to Raeli], the sects founder penned 2 books which were the early foundation of his group
1. The Book Which Tells the Truth (1974)
2. Extraterrestrials Took Me to their Planet (1975)Raëlism / The Raëlian Movement is a UFO based religion founded by Claude Vorilhon. Raëlism preaches that life on Earth was basically created in a test tube by an extra-terrestrial humanoid species. These hominids are called the "Elohim", and appear throughout Judeo - Christian lore, as well as under other accolades in various world religions and legends. We know them as angels and assorted deities. Raëlian originally founded Clonaid as Valiant Venture Ltd in 1997, it was turned over to a member of the Raëlian upper echelon in 2000 and eventually morphed into Clonaid.
So how does Cloning the Human Species fit into the Raelian dogma ?
Traditional scientific and theoretical cloning is simply the creation of a genetically identical living being from cells of the parent organism. Raëlians believe it is possible to not only genetically clone humans, but to also rapidly accelerate maturation of the clone into adulthood through various processes. Some of these processes include a guided self-assembly which is a concept that they borrowed from nanotechnology [molecular self assembly]. Once maturity of the clone is attained they seek to transfer the consiousness of the donor to the clone, in this way they seek to attain eternal life.
Ethical Issues
Ethical issues such as what happens to the consiousness of the clone have not been addressed. For instance identical twins each have their own mind and independent thoughts, a clone would basically be a younger identical twin, so is the youngsters mind and soul evicted from the body / murdered to make room for the parent consciousness .... ?
A few science fiction thrillers come to mind, first of course is the classic sci-fi thriller "The Island of Dr. Moreau" but even more relevant is the 2005 film The Island. The similarities in names is purely coincidental.
About Clonaid
Clonaid made International headlines when they announced they’d received a sizeable donation to fund human cloning. The scientific director of Clonaid, Dr. Brigitte Boisselier who is also a high ranking member of the Raëlians headed the operation under a tight regulatory thumb and persistent suspicion stoked by media coverage.
In 2001, Boisselier announced that a baby had been born. Multiple lawsuits and outrage ensued, no evidence of the human clone was ever provided and it was assumed that the entire incident was a hoax. If it was a hoax, Boisselier and her cohorts have been tight lipped ever since stirring up the 2001 tempest in the teapot. If their hoax is still walking around it would be celebrating it's 18th birthday this year, it is unknown if the hoax has any younger siblings. However After inquiries about the possibility of cloning Michael Jackson, Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, head of Clonaid, reaffirmed the company’s strict policy of respecting individual privacies of its clients.
"Clonaid prides itself on never releasing the identity of the numerous individuals who have been cloned in the past six years ... Even if that policy has been at the cost of my reputation, it’s important for us that the celebrities and other interested parties contacting us know they won’t be betrayed.”
Clonaid also has a clone of itself, a sister company, Stemaid, which has launched an anti-aging program using stem cells they claim are derived from clone embryos.
