8-Humans: South Korea sets rules for embryo research and bans cloning

[GENET <genetnl@xs4all.be>]

-----------------------
genet-news mailing list
-----------------------

                                  PART I
-------------------------------- GENET-news --------------------------------

TITLE:  Gov't set to clear embryos for use in medical research
SOURCE: The Korean Herald, by Lee Jae-hee
        http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2002/07/16/
        200207160049.asp
DATE:   July 16, 2002

------------------ archive: http://www.gene.ch/genet.html ------------------


Gov't set to clear embryos for use in medical research

Embryos meeting certain requirements will likely be approved for medical 
research starting next year, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said 
yesterday in proposed regulations addressing bioethical issues. According 
to guidelines on bioethics put forward by the ministry at a public forum 
yesterday, the ministry will ban the cloning of somatic cells, while 
embryos less than 14 days old, which are left over from infertility 
treatments, will be greenlighted for research. The ministry proposed that 
embryos only be used in stem cell research to treat diseases and develop 
contraception technology or infertility treatments. However, the ministry 
banned the cloning of individual humans and hybridization between humans 
and animals. For pregnant women, gene testing of embryos is restricted to 
confirming the presence of hereditary diseases, the ministry's proposal 
said. Gene therapy can only be used on patients with hereditary diseases, 
cancer or AIDS or in cases where no alternative treatment exists. The 
ministry plans to submit the guidelines to the National Assembly after 
reaching an agreement with related ministries including the Ministry of 
Science and Technology. 


                                  PART II
-------------------------------- GENET-news --------------------------------

TITLE:  Human cloning firm sets up affiliate in Korea
SOURCE: The Korean Herald
        http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2002/07/13/
        200207130006.asp
DATE:   July 13, 2002

------------------ archive: http://www.gene.ch/genet.html ------------------


Human cloning firm sets up affiliate in Korea

Clonaid, a human cloning firm, has established an affiliate company in 
Korea, participants at the International Bio Expo in Japan said Thursday. 
Participants and foreign media who attended the first biotechnology 
exposition in Tokyo, said that Clonaid's vice president Thomas Kaenzig 
claimed that BioFusion Tech Inc., a South Korean company owned by Clonaid, 
had developed an "embryonic cell fusion system or RMX2010." The sources in 
Japan said that the RMX2010 allegedly creates a stable electronic pulse 
required to develop human embryos to the blastocyst stage. The blastocyst 
stage is the state an embryo reaches five or six days after it has been 
fertilized, which is a critical step to instigate the cloning procedure. 
They also said that Kaenzig believes human cloning will become 
"commonplace" within ten years, though he failed to comment on any advances 
the company has made toward actually cloning a human being. Related to 
this, an official at BioFusion Tech Inc. confirmed that the company was set 
up two months ago as a wholly owned subsidiary of Clonaid and that there 
were currently three Korean technicians and six foreign employees working 
at the company. The BioFusion employee also said that about 10 Koreans have 
asked for cloning services, which according to the company Web site 
(www.clonaid.com) can cost around $200,000.


                                  PART III
-------------------------------- GENET-news --------------------------------

TITLE:  Controversial and revolutionary !
        Rael's new book "Yes, to human cloning".
SOURCE: CloneAid, USA
        http://www.clonaid.com/english/pages/news.html
DATE:   July, 2002

------------------ archive: http://www.gene.ch/genet.html ------------------


Controversial and revolutionary ! RaelŐs new book "Yes, to human cloning".

Three years ago, Rael, the well-known spiritual leader of the Raelian 
Movement, the world's largest UFO-related organisation counting 55,000 
people in 84 countries, founded CLONAID(TM), the first company offering to 
clone human beings. In this book, he explains how today's cloning 
technology is the first step in the quest for eternal life.

Once we can clone exact replicas of ourselves, the next step will be to 
transfer our memory and personality into our newly cloned brains, which 
will allow us to truly live forever. Since we will be able to remember all 
our past, we will be able to accumulate knowledge ad infinitum.

Thus today, man's ultimate dream of eternal life, which past religions only 
promised after death in mythical paradise, becomes a scientific reality. 
Rael, with exceptional vision, allows us an extraordinary glimpse into an 
amazing future and explains how our nascent technology will revolutionize 
our world and transform our lives. For example, he describes how 
nanotechnology will make agriculture and heavy industry redundant, how 
super-artificial intelligence will quickly perform human intelligence, how 
eternal life in a computer will be possible whitout the need for any 
biological body, and much, much more.

And as Rael says, don't be mistaken in thinking that this is 22nd-century 
science fiction. All this will happen within the next 20 years! This is a 
book written to prepare us for an unimaginably beautiful world, turned into 
a paradise, where no one needs work anymore!

*****

to read more about CloneAid, please check their web page



--


|*********************************************|
|                   GENET                     |
| European NGO Network on Genetic Engineering |
|                                             |
|             Hartmut MEYER (Mr)              |
|               Kleine Wiese 6                |
|           D - 38116 Braunschweig            |
|                 Germany                     |
|                                             |
| phone:  +49-531-5168746                     |
| fax:    +49-531-5168747                     |                      
| mobile: +49-162-1054755                     |
| email:  genetnl@xs4all.be                   |
|*********************************************|