ITALY: Experts on cloning have reacted sceptically to claims by Rome-based gynaecologist Dr Severino Antinori that the first human clone will be born next January.
Speaking at a Rome news conference, Dr Antinori said that he knew of three women carrying foetus clones in the advanced stages of pregnancy. Giving only the barest details, he said the women were in their 33rd, 28th and 27th weeks of pregnancy, respectively.
The 33-weeks pregnant woman was expected to give birth at the beginning of January, he said, adding that her cloned baby boy currently weighed 2.5kg - 2.7kg, was developing normally and was "absolutely healthy".
Dr Antinori declined, however, to identify the pregnant women or their nationality, saying only that they would give birth in "countries where this is permitted".
He declined to specify his role in the alleged clonings, saying only that he had given a "cultural and scientific contribution" to the unnamed group of medical experts involved in the pregnancies: "Where, when exactly, I don't really want to speak about that. I have to respect and protect both this project and these people."
Last April, Dr Antinori claimed that he knew of three pregnancies involving cloned babies, saying then that the oldest was in its ninth week of development. This week, he said that this was the pregnancy due for birth in January.
Yet, according to his April statement, the longest pregnancy would have passed nine months in mid-November. Asked about the discrepancies in dates, Dr Antinori refused to explain.
Professional colleagues reacted sceptically yesterday to Dr Antinori's claims. US-based fertility expert Dr Panos Zavos, who has worked with Dr Antinori in the past, told BBC Radio: "This doesn't mean anything other than the fact there is just a pregnancy. You've got to show me the facts, and the facts don't really stand up very well. I've known Severino for the last 18 years and I think Severino is under a very intense pressure to deliver, so to speak."
Dr Harry Griffin, deputy director of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, where the sheep Dolly was cloned in 1996, also questioned whether Dr Antinori could have cloned a baby, saying: "There are many losses before implantation, during pregnancy, and many cloned animals die within a few hours or days of birth. So it's a very risky procedure; and there's no reason to suppose that it is going to be any easier in humans than it is in those species which have been cloned so far."
Dr Antinori, who runs a fertility clinic in Rome, has regularly made headlines throughout the last 15 years.
Considered an inspired maverick by some and a charlatan by others, he first came to public notice in October 1988 when he used in vitro fertilisation techniques to make a 48-year, post-menopausal woman pregnant.
He continued to attract international attention in the 1990s with his often successful attempts to use donor eggs and hormones to ensure pregnancies for post-menopausal women, some of whom were in their late 50s and early 60s.