Company claims second cloned baby born to lesbian

Clonaid, the company that claims to have produced the first human clone, said Saturday that it has produced a second one--a girl born to a Dutch lesbian. Neither baby has been confirmed to be a clone by genetic testing, and mainstream scientists are skeptical of the company's claims.

Clonaid spokeswoman Nadine Gary said the child was born Friday night, but she declined to say where. Clonaid vice president Thomas Kaenzig said the baby is a girl whose parents are two Dutch women. "It's a homosexual couple, a lesbian couple from Holland," he told Associated Press Radio, speaking from an undisclosed location in the Dominican Republic. "The baby's doing fine. They're very happy and excited about it, and so are we."

Gary said she expects the second baby will undergo genetic testing to show it is a clone, with DNA identical to that of its mother. The group made a similar promise about Eve, a cloned girl purportedly born to U.S. parents on December 26. But Clonaid now says the parents of that baby are balking at testing.

Brigitte Boisselier, Clonaid's chief executive and top scientist, told AP Television News on Saturday that the lesbian parents have promised to tell her Monday whether they will allow DNA testing on their baby to confirm the claim.

The second baby's name has not been revealed. In television interviews Boisselier has said that the parents of the second baby want to remain anonymous. Gary said that while the parents are Dutch, the birth did not take place in the Netherlands, where cloning is illegal.