At the same time, Caplan and Greenwood stressed that any new federal law should not prevent scientists from using cloning technology to create cells for skin or organ transplants or other medical uses. But the group's claims, he said, merit concern. Greenwood said he had heard that the Raelians had set up a secret cloning venture somewhere in the United States. The group is headed by a former journalist, Claude Vorilhon, a singer, songwriter and racing driver who calls himself Rael. Its Web site says it has 50,000 members, has raised large sums of money, and has lined up 50 women who have agreed to bear these cloned babies.
Cloning sidesteps the normal process of conception.
Scientists found they could start a new life by taking an ordinary cell, transferring its genetic material to an emptied-out egg, and tricking it into growing into an embryo. Jaenisch, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he would testify that there were many miscarriages of cloned animals, and those born alive often showed defects. They are overweight, have lung problems, poor circulation, kidney problems, brain abnormalities . . . Jaenisch and other scientists are trying to figure out why. First there was Chicago-based physicist Richard Seed, who in 1998 announced he would create a human clone, perhaps of himself or his wife.