A n American cloning company associated with the Raelian religious sect has announced the birth of a human clone. We will have to wait until the results of tests to see whether the baby girl really is a clone, but the company says that another four baby clones are scheduled to be born in the next couple of months. An Italian fertility specialist has also announced a human clone pregnancy, and this baby's birth is due shortly, too. The human race may have entered the age of cloning -- in which two parents are no longer necessary for childbirth.

Six years have passed since the birth of the first mammal clone, a lamb called Dolly. There have been successes with sheep and mice, so speculation has been mounting that experiments with human beings would be successful, too.

Human cloning has been repeatedly depicted in many science-fiction novels, movies and comics as a frightening aspect of a future state-controlled society. Now reproductive medicine and life science have progressed so rapidly that authors' fantasies appear to be approaching reality.