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December 27, 2002, 6:00 PM EST
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Ushering in either a brave new world or a spectacular hoax, a company founded by a religious sect that believes in space aliens announced Friday that it has produced the world's first cloned baby.
A healthy 7-pound girl, nicknamed Eve by scientists, was delivered by Caesarean section Thursday somewhere outside the United States, said Brigitte Boisselier, chief executive of Clonaid. Boisselier said the girl is an exact genetic copy of the American woman who gave birth to her.
At a news conference, Boisselier offered no scientific proof, provided no photographs and did not produce the mother or child. She said proof -- in the form of DNA testing by independent experts -- will be available in perhaps eight or nine days.
"You can still go back to your office and treat me as a fraud," she told reporters. "You have one week to do that."
Cloning experts were skeptical or reserved judgment on the announcement, which is certain to touch off fierce ethical, religious and scientific debate. In Washington, the Food and Drug Administration said the agency will investigate whether the experiments violated U.S. law.
The United States has no specific law against human cloning. But the FDA contends its regulations forbid human cloning without agency permission.
"The very attempt to clone a human being is evil," said Stanley M. Hauerwas, a professor of theological ethics at Duke University. "That the allegedly cloned child is to be called Eve confirms the godlike stature these people so desperately seek."
Boisselier would not say where Clonaid has been carrying out its experiments and did not identify any of the scientists involved.
She said the mother as a 31-year-old with an infertile husband. The couple have decided not to face the media now, she said.
She said four other couples are expected to give birth to Clonaid-created clones by early February.
Clonaid was founded in the Bahamas in 1997 by Claude Vorilhon, a former French journalist and leader of a sect called the Raelians. Vorilhon, who calls himself Rael, claims a space alien visiting him in 1973 revealed that extraterrestrials had created all life on Earth through genetic engineering.
Boisselier, who claims two chemistry degrees, identifies herself as a Raelian "bishop" and said Clonaid retains philosophical but not economic links to the Raelians. Rael is "my spiritual leader," Boisselier said.
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