It's been one week since the Bahamas-based company Clonaid announced the birth of the alleged world's first human clone, a baby named Eve. The claim immediately met with widespread skepticism among scientists for several reasons: reproductive cloning has yet to be achieved in primates, the birth was announced at a press conference rather than in a peer-reviewed publication, and the company has yet to provide so much as photographic evidence of a baby.
Not strengthening its case, Clonaid is affiliated with the Raëlian sect, whose founding tenet is that humans were cloned from extraterrestrials. In light of past fraudulent claims to have cloned humans, this latest – if it's to be taken seriously – will have to be verified independently and thoroughly.
In an attempt to do just that, Clonaid has agreed to allow freelance science reporter Michael Guillen to orchestrate independent genetic testing of the baby. A science correspondent ...
