SEOUL, South Korea - Health authorities asked state prosecutors Friday to open a criminal investigation into a firm's claim that it successfully implanted a cloned human embryo in a South Korean woman.
The move came after the Ministry of Health and Welfare said it failed to find whether the claim by Clonaid, a U.S.-based religious sect, was true or not.
Kwak Ji-hwa, a spokesman for Clonaid's South Korea office, said this week that its head office made a Korean woman pregnant with a cloned embryo, with help from BioFusion Tech, a firm based in the southeastern city of Daegu.
But in telephone interviews with government investigators and journalists, Kwak refused to provide details about the surrogate South Korean mother, his company or its location in the United States and South Korea.
"Everything remains under the veil, so we have had to ask the prosecution to intervene," said Lee Jae-yong, a health ministry director who handles medical policy matters.
Lee said South Korea has no law banning human cloning. The prosecution probe, he said, will focus on whether the companies violated existing laws that ban unlicensed, unethical medical activities or practices.
Lee said BioFusion denied conducting any experiments for human cloning, although it acknowledged that it had carried out tests on a newly developed cell fusion device with animal cells.
Alarmed by the controversy, South Korea said Friday it will accelerate efforts to enact its first law against human cloning.
"Whether the claim is true or not, it has become more imperative that we enact such a law at the earliest possible date," said Kim So-hui, another official at the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Kim's ministry and the Ministry of Science and Technology have drafted separate legislation that would ban cloning of humans and limit stem cell research. The two bills are being combined into one for approval by the National Assembly.
Officials said the unified bill will call for a prison term of up to 10 years for those who attempt or help to clone humans. It will also require the establishment of a presidential ethics committee with the power to set boundaries on embryonic and stem cell research.
Research on embryonic stem cells could revolutionize the treatment of diseases such as cancer and Parkinson's disease. But the research is controversial because embryos must be destroyed to recover the stem cells.
According to its Web site, www.clonaid.com, Clonaid was founded in 1997 by the Raelian Movement, a sect that believes life on earth was created by clones of extraterrestrials.
The Raelian Movement claims a membership of 55,000 worldwide. It was not known how many followers it has in South Korea.
Most cloning experts are opposed to cloning for reproductive purposes, citing numerous birth defects and other serious problems affecting cloned animals.