STEPHEN WICARY

Globe and Mail Update

Friday, December 27 – Online Edition, Posted at 12:53 PM EST

A company founded by a Quebec-based cult that believes space aliens created humanity announced Friday that it has successfully produced the world's first human clone: a baby girl born to an American woman in her 30s.

Clonaid chief scientist Brigitte Boisselier made the announcement alone at a Florida hotel, without the mother or child.

"I am very pleased to announce that the first baby clone is born. She was born yesterday at 11:55 a.m. in the country where she was born," Dr. Boisselier told reporters, refusing to identify the country. "She's fine. We call her Eve."

She added that the name was merely a pseudonym, one that had been suggested to her by reporters. The child weighed just over 3 kilograms, she said, and was cloned from her mother's DNA.

Dr. Boisselier described the cloning process as similar to the one used to duplicate Dolly the sheep. And, as explanation for her solitary presence on the podium, she said the child's parents had yet to come to grips with facing the press.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will investigate whether the Raelians broke the law by conducting any part of the alleged cloning in the United States, a senior agency official said Friday. The U.S. has no specific law against human cloning, but the FDA, which regulates human experiments, argues that its regulations forbid human cloning without prior agency permission — authorization that it has no intention of giving.

"I don't know him. I've never met him, but I trust those who have chosen him," she said.

Dr. Guillen, who holds a doctorate degree in physics and worked as science editor for ABC news for 14 years, said he was taking on the responsibility of verifying the existence of the child without pay.

"Dr. Boisselier has invited me to put her claim to the test, and I have accepted on behalf of the world's press on two conditions: that the invitation be given with no strings attached whatsoever, and number two that the tests be condcuted by a group of independent world-class experts."

Dr. Guillen noted that the experts' tests would take about a week and that he would report back once they were complete.

"They're going to go by the book and be very strict and rigorous."

Clonaid was founded five years ago by the Raelians, a cult that built a UFO theme park in Quebec's Eastern Townships and argues that human beings have the right to reproduce in any way they wish.

The group expects four more babies to be born in the next several weeks, another from North America, one from Europe and two from Asia. Two of the couples are using preserved cells taken from their own children before their deaths, and one is a lesbian couple, Dr. Boisselier said.

"I do believe that it is the choice of every parent to choose the child they want, even if they don't have any infertility problem," she said, noting that the parentes were not asked to pay for the procedures, though some had invested in the company. "Who are we to tell the parents the child that they should have?"

"I saw them change," she added. "I saw them becoming so happy with the birth coming, and yesterday I can tell you it was the best day of their life. I wished them a very happy life."

With reports from Associated Press and The Globe and Mail's Gloria Galloway