Interview with R. Wicker

(By R. H. Wicker)

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Visual of Randolfe H. Wicker, by Dr. Hunter O'Reilly (www.artbyhunter.com)

From: Park (Chosun Reporter)

Dear Mr. Wicker,

Thanks a lot for helping me. I have read an example interview. I apologize if my questions are repetitive.

- You founded the world's first activist pro-human-cloning group (CRUF) immediately after the announcement of Dolly's birth. I want to know why?

- "Every person"s DNA is his or her personal property. But what if the first cloned baby is defective?

- No screening test can currently reveal which eggs have done the best job of reprogramming adult cell. It means that errors may happen. Is human cloning worth the risk?

- As a gay man, you can't have children of your own. What does human cloning mean to you?

- The February issue of Time says you are planning to have some of your skin cells stored for future cloning. Have you done it already? Have you found a lawyer who will help you set up your estate until you can be cloned?

- A human is likely to be cloned, and soon. But in a Time/CNN poll, 90% 0f respondents thought it was a bad idea to clone human being. What do you think of the poll? What do you want to tell those who are against human cloning?

- You know the work is always further ahead than the news. Has someone attempted to clone a human?

Thank you for taking time from your life to help me. I'll let you know as soon as this interview is posted on Chosun newspaper. If you send me your photo, it'll be great.

Sincerely,
Park from Korea

From: Randolfe H. Wicker

I founded the Clone Rights United Front, www.clonerights.com, two days after the announcement of Dolly's birth because I became enraged at the lack of real debate on the issue. Those opposed were all screaming: "This must never even be tried with human beings!" Those who were supposedly supportative were answering with whimpers of: "Well, shouldn't we at least explore the implications of this before outlawing it completely.

The event that really set me in motion was when an unknown Republican state senator introduced a bill to make cloning a felony punishable by three to seven years in jail.

This event and all the things that follow it are at the bottom of the "History of our Movement file."

The new York Times news story and our first leaflet is under visuals.

"Defective first baby?" We are greatly concerned that an irresponsible group like the Raelians will do just that and then everyone opposed to cloning would rush over and declare "victory" in the cloning debate.

If you go to the www.reproductivecloning.net website and look under "science", you will see the essay by Dr. Zavos and R. Moorgate which spells out the precautions that must be taken to bring the risks of abnormalities down to the 3% risk that normally occurs in pregnancy.

We don't want cloning to undergo the "hysteria" that surrounded the tragedy of thalidomide. "Thalidomide" became a "dirty word" for forty years because of the deformed children born in the 1960s. Just recently, it has been discovered that it is helpful in Leprosy and Geraldine Ferraro (check spelling) who ran for Vice President in 1984 is using it to control a type of blood cancer.

We have to "depoliticize" medicine. Cloning is a reproductive option and while I personally would not take the risks involved at present, I believe an INFORMED patient (single woman or couple) have the right to take that risk.

Human cloning can't be stopped. That is because the greatest medical miracles in the world are going to be based on stem cell research. Stem cell research is based on human cloning technology. You can't have nuclear transfer perfected and stem cell research developed without perfecting human cloning technology.

Human cloning is worth "the risk" because it offers people who can't have children of their own a chance to have genetically related children. It also makes it possible for an individual to deny death its traditional totality by having one's genotype (the formula that is them) life on into another lifetime.

Therefore, human cloning is a religious freedom as well as a reproductive right. Read my testimony to Congress from last March 28th and that is spelled out.

You can't extrapolate from animal studies to human beings. They always emphasize that when talking about the recent cure for Alzheimer's that was achieved in mice. However, people "overuse" the safety issue. It is a legitimate concern. However, one problem, the large off spring syndrome (LOS) seems to be located on the ifg2R gene and similar problems are experienced by women with diabetes who have children.

If you spend $10,000 on screening the embryo for defects before implantation and then spend another $30,000 or $40,000 on continues testing through the first two trimesters of pregnancy, we believe that bad outcomes can be avoided.

Please note that Dr. Zavos and the Consortium have said that it will take eighteen months to perfect the techniques for human cloning.

You just don't insert a cell into an egg and plop it into a human womb like you would do with a cow. Greater care must and will be taken by responsible researchers. The greater care, the greater the caution, the greater likelihood of a successful outcome.

These "gene expression" arguments have been carried to an extreme. I mean when Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch says we don't know if Dolly is mentally retarded or is schizophrenic, he is making unrealistic accusations. No one has an intelligent test for a sheep. Dolly knows to run and greet newcomers because she knows that she I going to get a treat. Likewise, how can you measure the personality development of a sheep? This is all spelled out in my Congressional testimony.

I regret over-emphasizing the homosexual aspect of cloning when I started the movement. I saw that three female sheep had created a baby, same sex reproduction, for the first time in mammalian history.

If you would red the long interview with me by Jack Nichols which is in our History Series or can be found through the Village Gazette or the "interviews" archive at Gay Today, www.gaytoday.badpuppy.com This is spelled out in detail. I now prefer not to bring "sexual politics" into the discussion. This is an issue for all people, especially for those in infertile relationships, heterosexual or homosexual. It is also an issue about the reproductive rights of single people. See my "Fighting for My Unborn Twin Brother" under "Personalizing the issues" at www.clonerights.com There you will find a marvelous interaction I had with a young woman on this issue.

Human cloning means to me that I do not have to die "totally". I can achieve a temporary, partial immortality" through seeing that another later-born twin receives the gift of life. I intend to see that happen in my lifetime. I am too old to assume single parenthood so just read the exchange about the heterosexual couples adopting him, etc. under "personalizing the issues". Believe me, you will have a hilarious and stimulating few pages of material.

The other "jewel" on the www.clonerights.com website is the story entitled "Human Cloning: A Promising Cornucopia" where I spell out my greater vision in more detail. Unfortunately, they used terrible graphics and photos with that story.

Yes, I am in the process of contacting www.cells4life.net to have my cells saved for future cloning. That is now possible at an affordable price and done in a professional way by the physicians and scientists working there. Talk with Fred Chamberlain. He was/is associated with Alcor who are specialists in cell preservation.

When Louise Brown was born in 1978, 85% of the public was opposed to in-vitro-fertilization. They said that babies "should not be conceived in test tubes". They said such babies would be deformed, that they wouldn't really be human, that they would lack souls. Well, now IVF is accepted by most people. The same will come to pass with cloning. When people see the wonderful relationships between the person cloned and the later-born twin, as social scientists study these twins differing in age and discover some new answers to those old "nature versus nurture" arguments, as people come to know and love those first dozen or so children conceived through cloning, they will come to love them.

The fear of cloning will vanish like darkness vanishes with light. Perhaps I should say the ignorance and fear vanish once knowledge and success arrive in the cloning arena.

I am not aware of anyone who has attempted to clone a child at this time. If you read my two postings entitled "How When and Where" under "Editorials" at www.clonerights.com you will see that I believe it will be done both publicly and privately. I suspect that it will done quietly the first time by an infertile fertility doctor who simply wants a child.

The first "publicly known" children conceived through cloning are probably going to have their privacy and their childhood stolen from them. That is what happened to the famous Dionne Quintuplets who were born in Canada.

That is why I think that after the world has come to believe that a certain person was the "first child conceived through cloning", that in 2025 or so, someone will simply announce that the history books are wrong.

That woman will have her adult later-born twin daughter at her side. When she says, "I conceived this child through cloning in the 2000 (or 2001), they will be able to validate that fact with a DNA test. All the history books will have to rewritten.

That woman will have done the right thing. She will have exercised her reproductive rights. She will have gotten a wanted and loved child with whom she will have one of the world's most special bonds.

That child will have privacy. That child will have had a childhood. That child would have had a normal life. And without paying "the usual price", that child will be one of the most famous people in the history of humankind.

You are welcome to use any of visuals off www.clonerights.com or the photo off the home page of the www.humancloning.org homepage.

You might want to see my most current "biography" under "Who Is Randolfe H. Wicker" at www.clonerights.com

Cloningly yours,

Randolfe H.. Wicker

Founder, Clone Rights United Front - http://www.clonerights.com

Spokesperson, Reproductive Cloning Network - http://www.reproductivecloning.net

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