Newspaper report indicates pregnancy in cloning effort

A newspaper report quoting an Italian doctor who said a woman in his human cloning program is pregnant was met with criticism and skepticism Friday from scientists and ethicists.

The English-language Gulf News of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, said fertility specialist Dr. Severino Antinori made his comments while visiting Dubai for a conference on cloning and genetic engineering.

In response to a question about his project to clone humans, he was quoted as saying: "Our project is at a very advanced stage. One woman among the thousands of infertile couples in the program is eight weeks pregnant."

He did not specifically say that the woman was carrying a cloned fetus nor explain the technique used in the pregnancy. The newspaper said he refused to say what country the woman comes from.

Antinori heads a private fertility clinic in Rome. In 1994, he succeeded in helping a 62-year-old woman give birth to a boy.

Spokeswomen for Antinori said he would not comment on the newspaper report.

The report did provoke a response from Dr. William Keye, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, which opposes using cloning to make human babies.

"Despite the assertions of progress made by some self-proclaimed cloning experts, there is no scientific evidence to justify an attempt to clone a human being," he said in a statement from the organization. "We urge the media, the public and policy makers to meet such claims with skepticism rather than alarm, unless they are accompanied by peer-reviewed scientific evidence."

Ronald M. Green, who directs the Ethics Institute at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., also said it's far from certain that an 8-week-old pregnancy would lead to a birth.