First human clone claim

A company associated with a group that believes extraterrestrials created mankind said yesterday it had produced the first clone of a human being, without offering any proof.

The privately held company, Clonaid, said a baby girl had been cloned through cells taken from a 31-year-old American woman. Clonaid director Brigitte Boisselier said the infant was born on December 26 at 11:55 a.m.

"I'm very, very pleased to announce that the first baby clone is born," Boisselier, a former research chemist in France, said at a news conference in Hollywood, Florida.

Experts were immediately sceptical of Clonaid's claim that it successfully produced the first human clone with procedures much like those used to clone Dolly the sheep.

"It would be a surprise to me if it were that simple to clone humans," said Dr. Barry Zirkin, who is the head of the division of reproductive biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,

"Based on the experience with animals, one would imagine it would take many many shots to actually get a human baby."

Neither the baby girl nor her parents were present at the announcement by the company.

But results of genetic testing of the child by an independent expert will be available in 8-9 days, Boisselier said, adding that four more cloned babies would be delivered by the end of January.

"You could still go back to your office and treat me as a fraud," Boisselier, dressed all in black, told the news conference. "You have one week to do that."

Boisselier would not disclose where the baby girl, named Eve, was born. But she said the baby was delivered by Caesarean section and weighed 3.1 kilogrammes.

Cattle, mice, sheep and other animals have been cloned with mixed success. Some animals have displayed defects later in life and scientists fear the same could happen with cloned humans.

Randall Prather, a reproductive biotechnology professor at the University of Missouri, said an independent expert not named by Clonaid would be essential to conduct DNA fingerprinting to determine the baby is in fact a clone.

"Is it possible in humans? Potentially. Have we seen problems with cloning domestic animals? Yes. Do we understand what causes those problems? No. Therefore we shouldn't do it," Prather said.

Clonaid has been racing Italian fertility doctor Severino Antinori to produce the first cloned baby. Antinori said last month he expected one of his patients to give birth to a cloned baby in January.

US President George W. Bush has asked Congress to ban the creation of cloned babies as well as the cloning of human embryos for medical research. The US House of Representatives passed a ban, but a similar bill in the Senate stalled after scientists argued such a law would hinder medical advances.

Clonaid spokeswoman Nadine Gary said the baby had been born outside the United States, but she declined to say where.

Nonprofit and public interest groups have lined up on both sides of the controversy. Early yesterday, anticipating the announcement, Chicago-based Centre for Bioethics and Human Dignity said it condemned the Clonaid effort.

"Regardless of the accuracy of the claim, the fact that renegade scientists are apparently continuing to work to clone human beings despite the proven dangers of mammalian cloning shows that the United States and the rest of the world need to pass a complete ban on this dangerous and unethical procedure as soon as possible," said C. Ben Mitchell, a senior fellow at the center.

The Vatican's top moral theologian, Father Gino Concetti, also condemned the possibility of human cloning in a recent interview.

Clonaid is linked to a sect called the Raelians, whose founder, Claude Vorihon, describes himself as a prophet and calls himself Rael.

The Raelians, who claim 55,000 followers around the world, believe life on Earth was sparked by extraterrestrials who arrived 25,000 years ago and created humans through cloning. They believe cloning could extend human life for hundreds of years.