Clonaid executive ordered to testify at Florida hearing on guardianship

A judge ruled that a Clonaid executive must testify at a hearing on a request for a court-appointed guardian for an infant the company claims is the world's first cloned human.

Judge John Frusciante refused Tuesday to quash a subpoena served to company vice president Thomas Kaenzig, saying he must testify Wednesday even if by phone from Las Vegas.

Kaenzig's lawyers argued Kaenzig had no knowledge of the location of the purported child or the mother.

Clonaid officials announced earlier this month that a cloned baby girl had been born in a foreign country.

The company wouldn't identify the alleged mother or the country and reneged on a promise to prove its claims through independent DNA tests. It said it would not identify the mother out of fear the court action may take the baby away from her.

Miami attorney Bernard Siegel filed the petition, saying he wanted to protect the interest of the child.

Kaenzig is a self-professed member of the Raelian religion, which believes aliens first populated Earth by creating clones.