here it comes.
-x
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 8:51:21 PST
From: AFP <C-afp@clari.net>
Subject: World's first cloned baby could be born in Israel
BERLIN, March 10 (AFP) - An Italian doctor who helped the
world's oldest mother become pregnant said he will start cloning
babies in Israel, where the controversial project is legal, the
German weekly Der Spiegel said in its Monday issue.
Professor Severino Antinori said Friday that a cloned baby could
be created within two years using techniques already practiced on
animals.
A group of Israeli scientists are already working on the project
in the coastal town of Caesera, north of Tel Aviv, where the Abaclon
company was founded for the purpose.
"Jewish belief does not oppose cloning in the same way as the
Catholic church," one of the Israeli scientists told the magazine,
adding that it was "time to move beyond the laws of nature."
Avi Ben-Abraham declined to name the programme's investors,
saying "money played no role."
Antinori said the procedure would involve taking cells from an
infertile father and injecting them into an egg, which would then be
placed in the mother's uterus.
The resulting child would have the same physical characteristics
as the father and infertile parents would not have to rely on sperm
donors.
"Cloning is the last frontier giving (an infertile) man the
chance to transmit his genes and become a father," Antinori told a
conference in Rome Monday.
The anti-abortion charity group Life condemned the doctor's
plans but said it was "inevitable" someone would try to clone
babies.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:59:40 MDT