Cloning controversy. (updates).(first cloned human baby)(Brief Article)

If the announcement is true, the first cloned human baby will be born in November.

A woman in a controversial human cloning program was eight weeks pregnant on April 3, claims embryologist Dr. Severino Antinori, president of the Bologna-based Italian Society for Reproductive Medicine. "One woman among thousands of infertile couples in the program is eight weeks pregnant," Antinori says.

Outrage is widespread. Ethics aside--the technology is opposed by many on moral grounds--the consensus is that the risks of deformities, premature aging and stillborn births are still so extraordinarily high as to make the cloning of humans unthinkable. Many countries have banned reproductive cloning due to these risks.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology cloning expert Rudolf Jaenisch is appalled. "This is irresponsible," he says, "and it ignores the overwhelming scientific evidence from mammalian species cloned so far.

"All evidence indicates that most clones die early--the lucky ones--and the rare survivors may have serious abnormalities which may become apparent only later," Jaenisch says. "Antinori seems to use humans as guinea pigs to advance his questionable agenda. He needs to be stopped."

But Antinori is used to controversy. He first attracted international attention in 1994, when he helped a 62-year-old Italian woman named Rossa Della Corte become the oldest woman at the time to give birth. The case alarmed many. Now, his human cloning announcement has ignited a ...