Cult plans to clone baby girl

A US religious cult announced last week that it has both the expertise and the money necessary to pursue its plan to clone a human being. The cult leader, a former French sports journalist known as Rael, told a press conference that an American couple are providing the funds required to clone their child, who died recently aged ten months.

The couple have reportedly paid $500,000 (£375,000) to Clonaid, the human cloning company set up by the cult. 'Things are being put in place. It's a matter of days' said a Clonaid spokeswoman last week. The Raelians, who claim to have 50,000 members in 85 countries, say they have 50 volunteer surrogate mothers to carry the cloned human embryos.

Despite widespread condemnation from scientists involved in somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) research - the technique used to create Dolly the sheep - some experts say the cult's attempt may prove successful. 'It's a numbers game' says George Seidel of Colorado State University, Fort Collins. 'It's very likely if you did it enough times you could make it work'. The Raelians say they have recruited a biochemist, a geneticist, a cell fusion expert and a medical doctor to carry out the project, but have not identified any of the scientists.

Meanwhile, US biotech firm Advanced Cell Technologies has cloned an animal belonging to an endangered species, the ox-like Asian guar. The cloned embryo was created using a skin cell from a dead guar, and then transferred into the womb of a surrogate cow mother. The baby guar, to be named Noah, is expected to arrive next month.