Clone baby claim draws condemnation and doubt

World leaders and religious figures joined ranks with scientists at the weekend to pour scorn on claims by a company set up by an obscure cult that it had produced the first clone of a human being.

Besides almost universal condemnation across the globe on ethical grounds, many experts doubted whether the world's first cloned baby had been born at all as the cult had given no proof.

The White House said US President George W. Bush was "deeply troubled" by the human cloning issue, while French President Jacques Chirac called on all governments to outlaw the practice and punish anyone attempting to create a clone.

The world's three main monotheistic religions were at one in denouncing the claim.

The announcement of the cloning was made on Friday by a French scientist who belongs to the cult, called the Raelians, which believes human life was begun by aliens who arrived 25,000 years ago and created humans through cloning.

Brigitte Boisselier, chief executive of the cult's biotech company, Clonaid, told a news conference in Hollywood, Florida, the baby girl, called Eve, was born to a 31-year-old woman after being cloned from cells taken from the mother.

She said the parents, who had been infertile, did not wish to show off the baby and declined to disclose who they were or where the child had been born.

The lack of proof drew a chorus of scepticism, especially from scientists and biotechnology experts.

"There is no credibility to this story whatsoever," British fertility expert Robert Winston told Britain's Observer newspaper.

"It is just a big con, though it has provided wonderful publicity for the Raelians."

The Raelians were founded by Claude Vorihon, who calls himself Rael. He also set up Clonaid.

Italian fertility expert Severino Antinori, who announced earlier this year that one of his patients would give birth to the first cloned baby in January, was scornful of the claim.

"They're not even scientists. I have 200 published medical studies, what do they have? This is pure invention," he told Reuters in Rome.

Medical ethics expert Norman Frost of the University of Wisconsin said, scientifically speaking, the announcement had to be seen as a hoax until evidence was produced.

"Politically speaking, it will stir the pot, adding support to those who want to block cloning," he added.

Already the Christian Coalition of America has reacted by saying it would lobby the US Congress for an outright ban on human cloning, including the cloning of human embryos - a euphemism for stem cell research which some believe could hold a key for curing diseases from Parkinson's to cancer.

Whether Friday's claim can be proved or not, the issue of cloning looked set to return to the political spotlight.

"Despite the widespread scepticism among scientists and medical professionals about (the) announcement, it underscores the need for the new Congress to act on bipartisan legislation to ban all human cloning," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Friday.

In Paris, Chirac's office issued a statement saying the president renewed his condemnation of all research on reproductive cloning.

"For France, this practice is criminal and contrary to human dignity," the statement said.

The Vatican, noting no evidence of the cloning had emerged, said, nevertheless, it was an expression of a brutal mentality which lacked all ethical and human consideration.

Muslim figures were also unequivocal. Rifaat Fawzi Abdul Mutalib, professor of Islamic sharia law at Cairo University said cloning to create a foetus was forbidden.

"This is a disfigurement of God's creations and the Prophet (Mohammed) has cursed changes to God's creations," he said.

A statement from the office of Israel's chief rabbi, Rabbi Lau, said he supported technological developments which helped save life. But the "moment that a medical treatment intends to take on roles in areas it is not responsible for, such as the shortening of life, cloning and forming life in an unnatural way, we must set restrictions so that the basic faith we have in God with regards to life and death are in His hands".

Among the condemnation, came one voice urging caution. "So long as any child that results from cloning is treated as a human being, as an end in itself rather than a means to other people's ends, it's important not to overreact," said University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein, who was co-editor of the 1998 book "Clones and Clones: Facts and Fantasies About Human Cloning".