Brigitte Boisselier, French scientist, Raelian sect member
Posted on 01/21/2003 11:56:29 PM PST by JohnHuang2
The founder of a UFO cult that claims it has cloned the first human baby admits the claim may be a hoax.
As WorldNetDaily reported, French scientist and member of the Raelian sect Brigitte Boisselier declared on Dec. 26, "I have created life," in announcing the birth of a baby girl she claimed was a clone of a 31-year-old American woman.
Brigitte Boisselier, French scientist, Raelian sect member |
Bosselier, the chief scientist for the millennial sect and managing director of Clonaid, a Las Vegas, Nevada-based company, refused to say where the human embryo allegedly was cloned or implanted into the mother, or even where the baby, named Eve, was born.
No scientific proof of Bosselier's claim has been provided.
Bosselier initially promised an "independent inspector" would take DNA evidence from baby and mother to verify her claim. But the former journalist she recruited to serve as the independent inspector declined her offer.
Then a Florida lawyer filed a court motion for the state to take custody of the baby. After that, Boisselier said the unidentified parents had decided against the DNA testing.
WorldNetDaily also reported the Food and Drug Administration is investigating Clonaid's claim. Though the U.S. has no specific law against human cloning, the FDA, which regulates human experiments, has contended since 1998 that its regulations forbid human cloning without prior agency permission.
Clonaid was founded in the Bahamas in 1997 by Claude Vorilhon, a former race-car driver and journalist who founded the Raelians.
 Claude Vorilhon, founder of Raelian cult |
"If it's real, [Bosselier] deserves the Nobel prize because she is making history and it's the most fantastic scientific advance in the history of humanity," Vorilhon told 300 followers gathered at the cult's Canadian base in Quebec Sunday.
As the ZENIT news agency reported, this was the first public admission by Vorilhon undercutting the credibility of the cloning claim.
"If it's not true, she's also making history with one of the biggest hoaxes in history," Vorilhon said, "so in both ways it's wonderful. Because, thanks to what she is doing now, the whole world knows about the Raelian movement. I am very happy with that."
According to Vorilhon, the Raelian movement numbers 60,000 worldwide.
"A media analyst said the Raelian movement got about $500 million worth of media coverage across the world and I think it is true, and it is not finished," the Associated Press quotes him as telling his followers. "This event saved me 20 years of work."
The AP describes UFOland – as the Raelians call the Quebec headquarters – as resembling the "set of a bad 1950s sci-fi movie, complete with a replica of the flying saucer."
Raelians believe the first humans were cloned by aliens who visited the Earth in flying saucers 25,000 years ago. They believe these aliens, or Elohim – a Hebrew word referring to God – will return to Jerusalem when there is world peace and an embassy has been built for them.
Vorilhon renamed himself Rael after supposedly being visited in 1973 by a member of the Elohim. He described his visitor as being about 3-feet tall with long black hair, almond-shaped eyes, olive skin and exuding "harmony and humor."
He says he discovered through this meeting that his father was an alien, and claims he was taken in the flying saucer to meet Jesus, Buddha and Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormons. Rael, who lives in Quebec, now describes himself as a prophet and claims that cloning will enable humanity to attain eternal life.
Five followers of Raelianism were reportedly implanted with cloned embryos earlier last year as the UFO cult raced with maverick Italian gynecologist Severino Antinori to be the first to deliver a cloned human baby.
Antinori announced in November that three women had been impregnated with cloned embryos. The first birth is said to be due this month.
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....mmmm...ya think?
Ugh, Raelianism is a fraud, but I thought Rael would have played it out more subtly than that. I'm disappointed!"If it's real, [Bosselier] deserves the Nobel prize because she is making history and it's the most fantastic scientific advance in the history of humanity," Vorilhon told 300 followers gathered at the cult's Canadian base in Quebec Sunday.
As the ZENIT news agency reported, this was the first public admission by Vorilhon undercutting the credibility of the cloning claim.
"If it's not true, she's also making history with one of the biggest hoaxes in history," Vorilhon said, "so in both ways it's wonderful. Because, thanks to what she is doing now, the whole world knows about the Raelian movement. I am very happy with that."
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