Baby Said to Be Human
Clone Goes Home
.c The Associated
Press
A baby said to be the first human clone has gone home with her mother, according
to a cloning company linked to a sect that believes space aliens created
life on Earth.
The baby, nicknamed ``Eve,'' went home Monday, said Clonaid spokeswoman Nadine
Gary. The company has refused to say where her home is, or where Eve was
born last Thursday. The unidentified mother is a 31-year-old American, Clonaid
officials said at a news conference last week in Hollywood, Fla.
A lawyer in Florida, meanwhile, asked a judge Tuesday to appoint a guardian
for the baby, saying that Clonaid is trying to commercially exploit the child
and that she needs specialized medical treatment.
In documents filed in Broward County Circuit Court, attorney Bernard F. Siegel
said that if the judge determines the baby is in danger, she should be turned
over to state care. Siegel admits in the documents that he does not know
if the baby is in Florida, but argued that the court has jurisdiction because
Clonaid held its news conference in the state last week. No hearing date
has been set.
Siegel, a sports and entertainment lawyer in Miami, said he had ``no particular
ax to grind,'' and was trying to act in the child's best interest. In 1999,
Siegel started a Web site to draft Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura to run for
president.
Clonaid did not immediately returned a call seeking comment.
DNA samples are to be taken soon from the baby and the mother for testing
to show whether Eve is a clone of the woman.
Clonaid, which declines to reveal where its facilities are, was founded in
the Bahamas in 1997 by the man who founded the Raelian religious sect. The
man, Rael, says he learned about the origin of life on Earth from a visitor
from outer space. He says he views cloning as a step toward reaching eternal
life.
Clonaid retains philosophical but not economic ties to the Raelians, the
company says.
Meanwhile, South Korean prosecutors are reportedly trying to verify reports
that Clonaid officials impregnated a South Korean woman with a cloned human
embryo and moved her out of the country in July.
The prosecutors recently seized documents and research data from a South
Korea biotech company that reportedly helped Clonaid with the impregnation,
the national Yonhap news agency said.
Prosecution officials quoted by Yonhap did not identify the country where
the South Korean woman was thought to have gone.
01/01/03 08:29 EST
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