Cloning around

Following last week's claim from Brigitte Boisselier, president of Clonaid, that evidence of cloned human babies was to be presented to the world, Clonaid have released a photograph of what it claims is the third cloned baby born.

The photograph, released last Monday, shows a baby in an incubator. But the company, linked to the Raelian cult which believes that people were created by aliens and cloning will lead to eternal life, have yet to produce proof that the baby is a clone. Clonaid claims that the parents will soon release this proof by showing that the baby has the same DNA as a child of the couple that died. Boisselier told a news conference that the parents would 'soon' travel to Brazil 'to provide, together with the scientists responsible for the procedure, all the necessary evidence'.

Clonaid announced the birth of the first cloned human baby just after Christmas last year. 'Eve' was said to have been born on 26 December to a 31-year-old American woman at an undisclosed overseas location. Since then, Clonaid announced four other cloned babies born in the Netherlands, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The baby shown is said to be the one born in Japan. Clonaid has also said that a 'second generation' of implanted embryos has also allegedly been created, with up to 20 more women now pregnant.