Health

Couple Wants a Cloned Baby

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 31, 2002 / 8:41 AM EST / CBS

Desiree Boen and Matt Racquer want to be one of the first couples to clone a child. Desiree and Matt are planning to get married in 2 weeks. Desiree is a 26-year-old schoolteacher with two children from a previous marriage. She had a hysterectomy and cannot have another child. Desiree would like to have a child that is a clone of Matt. Desiree and Matt talk to us about why they want to clone a child, and whether they are concerned about the serious medical and ethical questions involved in cloning.

How did you get interested in cloning?

We first found out about it, because we were going to adopt a baby, and I was looking in the Internet under adoption, and went from there. I had a hysterectomy, which means I cannot have a child and a surrogate would carry a child. When we learned more about cloning, we became interested. We would like to clone Matt because he has not had any children.

I understand you're not part of the very first experiment, the secret Mediterranean group, but why do you still want to be one of the first groups of couples?

We want to show the public that this is not such a weird thing, and this is not so unnatural, and if we can show them ten little toes and hands, they won't think it's so bizarre.

Desiree, you said you had a hysterectomy. If you were interested in cloning a baby, how would it work for you?

It would be Matt's because I already have two children from my own genes. The cell from the donor egg would be taken and Matt's adult cell would be implanted in its place and the egg as a whole would be implanted into a surrogate mother for her to carry for the whole 9 months.

How do you respond to people who say, "Why don't you adopt a child?"

You don't know what you're going to get when you adopt a child, and it's scary, and also you're not guaranteed that the biological parents won't come back and want that child back.

Do you personally or does anyone in your family have religious objections to cloning?

We've talked with our families. They didn't fully understand, but they were very supportive afterwards.

What do you say to critics, people who think this is freak science?

A lot of the people who object are religious people, and here's what I have to say to them: I truly believe any child born is a miracle of God and not a freak of nature, no matter how it was created.

You know there are serious risks to cloning--risks we don't know about. Some of the animals that scientists have attempted to clone had many gross, almost freakish physical deformities. Are you willing to take that risk to have a child?

Those clones that were abnormal with the animals were part of the very first experiments that were taking place. Everything has got to be perfected, and there's always got to be a first for everything, and I don't think it's going to be a problem anymor. No one's guaranteed to have a normal child either.

What do your two children from the previous marriage think about this?

They don't know the details of this. They're only 6 and 9. But they know in the end that they'll have a brother; and they do know that it will look just like Matt.

What is the next step for you both? And if it were possible, would you be interested in attempting to clone a child right away, or would you prefer to wait until the technology is perfected?

We have time, but we're prepared to do it right away. We don't need to wait.

Are you concerned that doctors such as Dr. Ben-Abraham are giving false hope to couples like you who cannot have their own child?

No, because they've shown us proof with the cloning that they've done, and especially with these nine couples, if they come forward with a baby. No, not at all.