Religious Leaders Condemn Cloning Claim

Religious and political leaders and scientists across the world are denouncing the claim on the world’s first cloned baby as immoral and unnatural.

The Vatican said on Dec. 28 in a statement, ˝The announcement in itself is an expression of a brutal mentality, devoid of any ethical and human consideration.˝

George W. Bush also said through his spokesman that he urges ˝the congress to pass a law that bans all kinds of human cloning activities.˝

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to soon launch an investigation into whether the cloning company Clonaid illegally performed human cloning in the country. FDA regulations forbid human cloning without prior agency permission.

French President Jacques Chirac also condemned the announced birth in a statement saying, ˝Human cloning is a crime and contrary to the dignity of man.˝

In the Muslim world, clerics said, ˝Cloning humans disrupted natural law and would create a chaotic future for humanity.˝

˝We have learned through animal experiments that the process of cloning humans lead to various defects and diseases as well as a high rate of mortality during and after birth,˝ warned Dr. Harry Griffin, a British researcher who gave birth to the world’s first cloned mammal Dolly the sheep in1996.

Clonaid, a private research company claiming that it gave birth to the world’s first cloned baby named `Eve,` however, went on to say that it expected to create four more cloned babies in February next year. It said that four couples participating in its project include a lesbian couple from North Europe, a married couple from Asia who

Hye-Yoon Park parkhyey@donga.com