HOLLYWOOD, Fla., Dec. 27 (UPI) -- A controversial organization called Clonaid announced Friday it successfully cloned the first human, a process that resulted in the birth of a 7-pound girl named Eve.
If Clonaid's claims are true, it would be the first instance of human cloning. However, the company offered no physical evidence during a news conference, and its assertions are not expected to be verified for more than a week, after an independent group of scientists collects samples from the mother and baby to compare genetic similarities.
Brigitte Boisselier, scientific director for Clonaid, said the baby was born at 11:55 a.m. Thursday and delivered by Caesarean section. Boisselier did not disclose the location of the birth, nor did she provide any proof or pictures about the baby or the parents.
The baby is reported to be "fine," Boisselier said, and she is expected to go home with her parents in three or four days. Boisselier did not disclose where the parents and their baby would be staying, but she did say the couple is American and the mother is 31 years old and has an older daughter from a previous marriage.
"It was the best day of their life," Boisselier said of the parents. Boisselier asked the media to remember this was about an innocent baby "not like a monster, not a result of something that's disgusting."
She added, "Is my science worse than one who is preparing bombs to kill people? I am creating life."
Boisselier said the mother's husband is infertile so last spring, Clonaid transplanted and injected an entire skin cell from the mother into her own egg and used electrical impulses to initiate cell division and begin embryo development. The woman carried the baby to term.
"There are parents who have hope thanks to this technology," she said. Boisselier said the technique is similar to the one used to create the cloned sheep Dolly in 1997, "but it's adapted to human cells."
A total of 10 human cloning implantations were conducted this year on five different couples, including the American couple plus one other in North America, two in Asia and one in Northern Europe, Boisselier said. Five of those implantations were successful, she said, and the remaining implantations spontaneously aborted.
The second baby is expected to be born in Northern Europe next week, Boisselier said. The other three babies are due in late January or early February. Boisselier said one of the babies would be born to a lesbian couple and two of the babies are clones of deceased children. She did not provide additional details about the families or reveal their locations.
In reaction to the announcement, the White House said Friday that President George W. Bush finds human cloning "deeply troubling," and that he supports legislation to ban all human cloning. Spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters Friday the announcement "underscores the need for the new Congress to act on bipartisan legislation to ban all human cloning, that passed the House of Representatives by more than a 100-vote margin last year."
Clonaid was founded in 1997 and promotes itself as the first human cloning company. It was established by a religious movement called the Raelians who believe life on Earth was created by extraterrestrials. Boisselier is a bishop in the Raelian movement.
"It's appalling and scientifically irresponsible," said Dr. Robert Lanza, vice president of medical and scientific development for Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester, Mass. The company is devoted to therapeutic cellular research. "It's a sad day for science. They haven't even cloned a mouse or a rabbit," he told United Press International.
Despite the questions Boisselier's claims raise, Lanza said it would be unwise to dismiss the possibility that DNA tests could verify Clonaid has indeed cloned a living human being. "This is something that could be accomplished with enough resources and we need to take these claims seriously," Lanza said.
Clonaid's announcement also highlights the urgency for government intervention, Lanza added. "We may need a ban on this worldwide," he said. "A ban on human cloning is essential and long overdue."
Arthur Caplan, chair of the department of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia told UPI his skepticism and "sort-of-doubt antennae" are engaged by the announcement.
"The driving theme of that press conference was self-congratulation," Caplan said of Clonaid's announcement. "There's a high chance, which makes this so unethical, of having a sick person (baby). The chance of getting a healthy baby is probably 50-50. No reputable scientist is anywhere near this project."
Because the baby's DNA is identical to the mother's, the mother and daughter actually are identical twin sisters, Boisselier said, and the baby's maternal grandfather is also the baby's genetic father.
Although that might seem like a complicated family tree, Caplan said he is "not so worried about that" and the baby would likely be raised "like any test-tube baby." Although the baby would be physically identical to the mother, she would have different life experiences and likely have a different personality, he explained. "You're not your mother again," he said. "It's not Xeroxing."
Even if DNA tests validate Clonaid's claims, this baby girl has a long road ahead of her, said Dr. Joseph Nevins, a professor and chair of the department of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
"There's a very, very high likelihood there would be an abnormality," Nevins told UPI. "Certainly the experiments done in animals would suggest that to be the case."
Those abnormalities include both physical and mental impairments, which means the baby might be "faced with a pretty dismal life," he said.
"The problem is there should be legislation that should outlaw, that would make it a criminal offense," to clone humans, Nevins said. "It's human experimentation. It should never have been done."
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(Reported by Katrina Woznicki, UPI Science News, in Washington)
