Fridae

The world's second cloned baby is due to be born next week to a lesbian couple, according to a cult official who stunned scientists, world and religious leaders last Friday by announcing the birth of the first alleged human clone, nicknamed Eve.

Officials of the self-declared gay-friendly cult, which claims to march in gay pride parades all over the world each year, have disclosed that the second cloned baby girl would be born to a lesbian couple in an undisclosed location in northern Europe.

Eve who was born on December 26 had her DNA sample taken on Tuesday to determine if she is a clone of her mother, an unidentified 31-year-old American, said Clonaid officials at a news conference held last week in Hollywood, Fla.

The company, which is linked to a cult, known as the Raelian Movement, that believes space aliens created life on Earth, has refused to disclose where its facilities are, where Eve was born or where Eve and her mother are located although they are believed to have "home."

Dr Brigitte Boisselier, the CEO of Clonaid and a "bishop" in her sect has disclosed few details about the case but said Eve was created using DNA from the mother's skin cells and is a twin of her mother.

The founder and leader of the Raelian Movement is former French auto-racing reporter Claude Vorilhon, who now goes by the name Rael. He claims to be a direct descendant of aliens and that a being from another planet visited him in 1973. The Raelians believe that extraterrestrials created life on Earth 25,000 years ago by cloning and that it is the path to immortality. On its website, the sect claims to have more than 55,000 members in 85 countries, mostly in Canada, France and East Asia.

According to the sect's website, Rael was asked to set up an embassy on earth to facilitate the return of extraterrestrials to the planet. In 1997, he founded Clonaid with the mission of producing the world's first human clone.

Dr Boisselier, who is a former biochemistry professor at a New York college, said the birth occurred outside the United States because of anti-cloning laws.

---

In 1997, former US President Bill Clinton, following the recommendations of his Bioethics Advisory Commission, which concluded that human cloning would be unsafe and therefore unethical, signed a five-year ban on the use of federal funds for human-cloning research. Britain banned the creation of human clones in 2001. Previous research have shown that an overwhelming majority of cloned animals have birth defects and high mortality rates

Scientists and biotechnology experts are however sceptical that the sect has actually produced a cloned baby and are waiting for evidence. The DNA test is believed to be similar to tests commonly used in paternity lawsuits and in police investigations to identify suspects from samples of DNA taken at crime scenes. Test results are expected within a week.

In addition to the baby expected by the lesbian couple, Dr Boisselier said three other cloned babies created by Clonaid would be born to women in other areas of the world by February. The company plans to implant clone foetuses in 20 other women next month, Dr Boisselier said, and will soon begin offering the service � and charging an undetermined fee � to anyone who wants a clone, reports The New York Times.

On the cult's website, Rael's account of his encounter with the extraterrestrial comes complete with cheesy 1950s science-fiction-style movie clips, illustrations and descriptions of a "flattened bell" spacecraft and a "beautiful" alien with "almond eyes," who said it "came from very away" in a conversation with Rael.

Based in the Canadian province of Quebec, the group teaches a message of sexual freedom, sensual pleasure and love of science, and encourages sexual experimentation and gender play and even throws a transgender ball each year.

Rael explains that in doing so Raelians learn respect for the other gender, and become "inspired to act more human, and less like 'women' or 'men' as the Elohim-aliens who created all life on earth-teach us that gender roles keep us from understanding our true selves, and therefore our creators," explains Rael. "They are so evolved and enlightened that they have transcended gender barriers."

We are really quite feminist," he concludes. Raelians welcome gays, bisexuals, and transsexuals into their religion, and march in gay pride parades worldwide each year.