Clonaid eyes Brazil for human cloning clinic

The controversial firm Clonaid wants to open a human cloning clinic in Brazil, its director Brigitte Boisselier said.

"We want to open a clinic on each continent. For North and South America, we could open a clinic in the Caribbean, but we would prefer Brazil," Boisselier said.

She added that Clonaid had already applied for permission to set up the facility.

Clonaid claimed in December to have cloned the first human baby, Eve.

The scientific community, however, is skeptical, due to the lack of proof to back up the claim.

Clonaid was founded by the Raelian religious sect, which claims 40,000 members and believes humans were created by extra-terrestrials who had mastered genetic engineering.

Boisselier was in Brazil accompanying "Rael", or Claude Vorhilon, the former French motoring journalist who founded the sect in 1973, for the launch of the Portuguese versions of his books, "The Message Given to Me by Extra-Terrestrials" and "Yes to Human Cloning".

Clonaid has gone on to announce the birth of five more cloned babies and continues to say that they will present definitive proof in the near future.