Tokyo to ignore cloning claims
Jan 27, 2003
The Japanese government on Friday shrugged off an announcement by a controversial sect of the birth of a cloned baby in Japan where cloning is banned.
The Japanese government on Friday shrugged off an announcement by a controversial sect of the birth of a cloned baby in Japan where cloning is banned.
“I do not think the case is worthy of comment at this point. There is no publicised scientific evidence,†Atsuko Toyama, science and technology minister told a regular press conference.
“We should not deal with it as a legitimate announcement,†she said.
Her comments came shortly after the Clonaid group, run by the controversial Raelian sect, which believes the human race was cloned from extra-terrestrials who came to Earth 25,000 years ago, said a third cloned baby had been born to a Japanese couple.
Although it offered no proof at a press conference in Toronto, Clonaid claimed that the boy was a clone of a baby boy who died about 18 months ago and that he was born on Wednesday in Japan and was doing well.
The group has refused to give evidence for its claims to have produced three human clones, including the Japanese one, and international scientists have expressed widespread scepticism over the issue.
Japanese government officials dismissed the baby cloning announcement as a publicity stunt.
“We have no information about the case, and we have no plan to investigate it. It is not even worth talking about it,†said Yutaka Hishiyama, a Japans official at the bioethics and biosafety office of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
“It is a publicity stunt,†he said.
Those who engage in human cloning in Japan face prison terms of up to 10 years and fines of up to 10m yen (84,745 US dollars).
However, it is unclear how the law could be applied in a case where tampering with the egg was carried out abroad and only the delivery took place in the country.
Hiroyuki Hosoda, the state minister, heading the council on science and technology policy, said it was “extremely difficult†to say whether the parents should be punished under the law, stressing the need for implementing an international treaty.
The law in place, which took effect in June 2001, bans introducing a cloned embryo to the womb, however, Japans health ministry official declined to comment on whether the delivery of a cloned baby should also be considered illegal in the country.
AFP
“I do not think the case is worthy of comment at this point. There is no publicised scientific evidence,†Atsuko Toyama, science and technology minister told a regular press conference.
“We should not deal with it as a legitimate announcement,†she said.
Her comments came shortly after the Clonaid group, run by the controversial Raelian sect, which believes the human race was cloned from extra-terrestrials who came to Earth 25,000 years ago, said a third cloned baby had been born to a Japanese couple.
Although it offered no proof at a press conference in Toronto, Clonaid claimed that the boy was a clone of a baby boy who died about 18 months ago and that he was born on Wednesday in Japan and was doing well.
The group has refused to give evidence for its claims to have produced three human clones, including the Japanese one, and international scientists have expressed widespread scepticism over the issue.
Japanese government officials dismissed the baby cloning announcement as a publicity stunt.
“We have no information about the case, and we have no plan to investigate it. It is not even worth talking about it,†said Yutaka Hishiyama, a Japans official at the bioethics and biosafety office of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
“It is a publicity stunt,†he said.
Those who engage in human cloning in Japan face prison terms of up to 10 years and fines of up to 10m yen (84,745 US dollars).
However, it is unclear how the law could be applied in a case where tampering with the egg was carried out abroad and only the delivery took place in the country.
Hiroyuki Hosoda, the state minister, heading the council on science and technology policy, said it was “extremely difficult†to say whether the parents should be punished under the law, stressing the need for implementing an international treaty.
The law in place, which took effect in June 2001, bans introducing a cloned embryo to the womb, however, Japans health ministry official declined to comment on whether the delivery of a cloned baby should also be considered illegal in the country.
AFP