CLONING

To begin our systematic names and addresses campaign, we present a few of the environmental criminals who are leading the development of cloning. It is difficult to imagine a group that must be opposed more than the individuals below. Through technology, humans have developed the ability – the power – to manipulate life. However, we do not have the right. Power does not infer or imply right! It is immoral, and it should be made criminal, to steal life, as through biopiracy, or to manipulate it without its approval. We do not have the right to manipulate life for any reason, including through cloning and genetic engineering and for the purposes of xenotransplantation. The Supreme Court ruling in 1980 that allowed the patenting of life forms “made by the hand of man,” was an atrocious decision. It must be reversed. But, until it is, we are compelled to fight, and end, these travesties.

The cloning industry is a maze of interconnections. This journey through starts with:

- Advanced Cell Technology, www.advancedcell.com, One Innovation Drive, Biotech 3, Worcester, MA 01605, 508-756-1212. ACT, in October 2001, cloned the first human embryos, creating six-celled blastocysts.

President: Michael West, mwest@advancedcell.com
VP-Research, Jose Cibelli, jcibelli@advancedcell.com
VP- Medical and Scientific Development, Robert Lanza, rlanza@advancedcell.com
Ann Kiessling-Cooper of Duncan Holly Biomedical, Somerville, MA, who collected from donors the 19 human eggs that ACT tried to clone.
Chairman of Ethics Advisory Board, Ronald Green of the Religion Department of Dartmouth College, ronald.m.green@dartmouth.edu, 603-646-1263, 202 Thornton, Hinman Hall, Box 6036, Hanover, NH 03755

ACT also clones mice, cattle and chickens. To greenwash their image, they tried to clone an endangered species, a gaur. From forty implanted cloned embryos they got eight pregnancies and one gaur baby, which died in two days. In response to this attempt, we must observe that species go extinct because they are hunted and/or their habitat is destroyed. A cloned endangered animal will therefore remain under a sentence of death, and there should be no cloning for zoos!

- Also part of the ACT team was Teruhiko Wakayama, who was the first person to clone mice, while at the University of Hawaii. His partner at Hawaii, Ryuzo Yanagimachi, is still there, at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, Biomedical Services Building T-311, 1960 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 96822, 808-956-7131/713

The mouse clones were announced in July 1998, but the first clone was actually made in October 1997 and kept secret.

Many other scientists and companies clone cattle and pigs, because of the perceived financial opportunity. These include:

- Genzyme Transgenics Corp. (which works with ACT, and which also clones goats), www.transgenics.com, 175 Crossing Blvd., Suite 410, POB 9322, Framingham, MA 01701, 508-620-9700
CEO: Geoffrey Cox

- Neal First at the University of Wisconsin, nlf@calshp.cals.wisc.edu, and his graduate students Zeki Beyhart, zbeyhart@students.wisc.edu, and Gabriella Cezar, gcezar@infigen.com, 752 Animal Sciences, 1675 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, 608-263-4307

- Infigen, Inc. (note the connection with Ms. Cezar), www.infigen.com, 1825 Infinity Drive, DeForest, WI, 53532, 608-846-0500

CEO: Walter Simson
President: Michael Bishop

- Prolinia Inc, www.prolinia.com, 450 ADS Complex, 425 River Road, Athens, GA 30602

CEO: Clifton Baile, cbaile@prolinia.com, 706-542-4094
President: Mike Wanner, mwanner@prolinea.com, 706-714-4389

- Joseph E. Johnson Animal Research at the University of Tennessee, Brehm Animal Science Bldg., 2505 River Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996

Lannett Edwards, 206 Brehm, jedwards@utk.edu, 865-974-7286
Neal Schrick, 213 Brehm, fschrick@utk.edu, 865-947-3147

Regarding pigs, two groups announced this January that they combined cloning with genetic engineering to create pigs whose organs could be harvested for xenotransplantation. What an accomplishment: three biotech crimes in one!

- The first group involved researchers at the University of Missouri and a company called Immerge Bio-Theraputics Inc. Immerge is a joint venture of Novartis and a company called Biotransplant Inc. (www.biotransplant.com)

Randall Prather, PratherR@missouri.edu, University of Missouri-Columbia, S110 Animal Sciences Center, 920 East Campus Drive, Columbia, MO 65211, 573-882-8336
Julia Greenstein, President of Immerge, julia.greenstein@biotransplant.com, Building 75, 3rd Avenue, Charlestown Navy Yard, Charlestown, MA 02129, 617-241-5200

- The second group was PPL – Therapeutics, U.S., www.ppl-therapeutics.com, 1700 Kraft Drive, Suite 2400, Blacksburg, VA 24060, 540-961-5559

VP-Research: David Ayares, dayares@ppl-therapeutics.com

PPL is of course famous for its involvement in the cloning of the sheep Dolly, now revealed to have developed premature arthritis. They are based in Scotland in the same location as the Roslin Institute. The Research Director of PPL is Alan Colman, who funded Dolly’s cloning, 44-131-440-4777

- Roslin, www.roslin.ac.uk, is located at Roslin BioCentre, Midlothian. EH25 9PS, Scotland, UK, 44-131-527-4400. It is headed by the infamous Ian Wilmut, ian.wilmut@bbsrc.ac.uk

- Also part of Roslin is Geron Corp., www.geron.com, and its subsidiary Geron Bio-Med, which is involved in pig cloning, 230 Constitution Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025, 650-473-7700, info@geron.com. Geron was actually founded by ACT’s Michael West, but he left in 1998.

- Moving on, monkeys have been cloned by Don Wolf at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center, 505 NW 185th Avenue, Beaverton, OR 97006, 503-645-1141, general email – parkerja@ohsu.edu.

All of this brings us full-circle to the most ludicrous individuals of all, those people who are already actively marketing human cloning services.

- Severino Antinori and his fertility clinic in Italy, www.raprui.org, antinori@raprui.org, and his associate Panos Zavos of the University of Kentucky and the Andrology Institute, 2134 Nicholasville Rd., Suite #3, Lexington, KY 40503, 800-998-4567, drz@aia-zavos.com

- Richard Seed, www.humancloning.org, 79 East Quincy, Riverside, Illinois 60546, jseed@pol.net, seed@interaccess.com

- And last but certainly not least: Clonaid – The First Human Cloning Company, biologist@clonaid.com, help@clonaid.com. They need help! www.clonaid.com is active but Clonaid has gone underground, opening a new secret company in the U.S. Clonaid was founded by the Raelian cult. The secret company is run by Brigitte Boisselier.

Note: At the end of 2002, Clonaid announced that they had in fact cloned humans. No evidence for this claim has been presented and it is not known if it is true or a fraud.