A Fun Look At The Madness Of Science Fiction Meeting Science Fact As They Collide With The Press, The White House, And The Moral And Ethical Considerations Of A Concerned World

The year was 1974 and Claude Vorilhon was a French Journalist. If you have never heard of the French reporter don't be surprised. Vorilhon isn't exactly a newsworthy name. However, if you were guilty of paying close attention to the stories in the Associated Press during the late 90s and early 2000s, or having caught the special on his business ventures that aired in March, then you know why his story is out there. Claude Vorilhon is a modern-day mad scientist.

Whether or not Claude Vorilhon, now known as Raël, is a prophet remains to be seen. What we know for certain is that he was a french journalist and a race car driver. Vorilhon is the founder of the Raëlians, a sect that came to some prominence in the Caribean during the 90s and has since spread around the world, accumulating 150,000 followers. The Raëlians refer to themselves as an organization, but they often are called a cult or sect. Reporter George Knapp, in a video from December of 2008, explained who the Raëlians are and reports on an incident at McCarran International Airport.

Raëlism teaches that Elohim created humanity using advanced technology. Throughout history, according to their teachings, the Elohim have been mistaken as "gods," and the Elohim have created Elohim/human hybrids who have served as prophets, preparing humanity for the news about their ultimate origins. They teach that Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Muhammad, and Vorihlon himself being the fortieth such prophet, have all had important roles to play. They believe that the Age of Apocalypse for humanity began with the Hiroshima bomb in 1945. Their argument is that humanity must find a way to harness new scientific and technological developments for peaceful purposes and that once humanity reaches that level of enlightenment, the Elohim shall return to earth and share their advanced knowledge to create a perfect Utopian society.

Whether or not their goals ultimately will be achieved, the sect has been committed to building an embassy for the Elohim visitors, incorporating a landing zone for their spaceship, engaging in sexual experimentation and daily meditation, and ultimately achieving human cloning as a way to find physical mortality. Rael promised in the late 90s to clone human embryos and once the one-hundredth embryo was born, to show the world the proof of where he achieved the ability to make such a leap in the technology being used to explore cloning. Criticism of Rael and his group have come from anti-cultists, ex-Raelians, and journalists alike. Considering that he opened his "Order of Angels", an internal female group that kept its' members largely sequestered from society as they were taught to train themselves to be the consorts of the Elohim, his group sounds more like a sex cult.

Vorilhon later turned the cloning project that he started over to senior Raëlian Brigitte Boisselier. Boisseller would be the face of the company moving forward. It was in 2002 that the company alleged that it had successfully produced a human clone. The announcement of the first clone, the baby Eve, brought large amounts of scrutiny and criticism.

The claim that a cloned child has been born in an undisclosed country displays a "brutal mentality" lacking "ethical considerations."

-Joaquin Navarro-Valls

In an interview with CNN Rael/Vorilhon dismissed the concerns.

This is a beautiful day for humanity--the creation of life. I don't understand ethical--the word ethic is just an accumulation of religious prejudices.

-Rael/Claude Vorihlon

Cloning? What's the process that they would have used to clone a baby? Scientists first take an egg and remove its' genetic material. Then, the nucleus of a cell--any cell in the body--is taken from the individual to be cloned and inserted into the hollowed-out egg. Cells are then given a jolt of electricity or put in a chemical bath to activate cell division. Essentially, this tricks the cell into doing what a fertilized egg would normally do. The embryo is implanted into the uterus of a woman who will carry the baby to term.

As Eve was being "born" Ms. Boisselier from Clonaid reported that there were four other babies due in February of 2003 and another expected within the week. The announcement promptly was met with condemnation from the scientific community, including one scientist that leads a rival cloning project, as well as religious-based organizations and the White House.

Without any scientific data, one has to be very, very skeptical.

-Dr. Robert Lanza-Andvanced Cell Technologies

If you move past the question of how and focus on why the ethical considerations abound. Considering that Rael/Vorilhon himself called the birth of baby Eve just the first step, one must wonder where cloning leads to as the science does, "eventually" come around.

Cloning is just the first step in a process that eventually will lead us to the key to human immortality. By transferring consciousness into cloned bodies, everything recalled in your brain can be downloaded into a cloned adult cell, an adult clone of yourself, and then you can have eternal life through different bodies.

-Rael

So, in December of 2002, the Raelians and Clonaid announced the birth of a cloned baby named Eve. The world's reaction to the announcement was astounding. By February of 2003, there were congressional hearings being held, amendments to laws being drafted, and witnesses being interviewed. The ethical and moral considerations were alarming. The news of the alleged clone had the world's attention from Washington D.C. all the way to Rome. The United Nations adopted declarations to address the controversial science. And yet, with the world's leaders and the scientific community now alarmed by the revelation that it might have happened, they could not reach a clear consensus. In the United States, there are no federal bans on human cloning, and 34 states allow for the procedures, research, and studies on the process. The global community and the group UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) could never get to a legally binding convention that would ban human reproductive cloning.

Did a French journalist and race driver crack the code to human cloning? Did Claude Vorihlon make the leaps in tech that would allow him to move forward in the human cloning project at a faster rate than experienced geneticists? If so, how?

If their original claims are true, there’s 100 or more 19 year old clones out there today in the world.

I hope you enjoyed this trip down the rabbit hole and the ponderings of what if. Please feel free to share it with anyone that might need a distraction from reality. If you liked this piece consider letting me know below by clicking on the heart icon. If you enjoy telling stories like I do, have ideas rattling round in your head that you need to get out into the open, and want to share them with the world, click here and consider joining the thousands of Vocal+ members already making money writing their stories from home.