Chasing Eve:

Is Cloning the Future?

To clone or not to clone *isn’t* the question — it’s whether or not we’ve already done it.

Summer Sheep: Photo by Jørgen Håland on Unsplash

Part 1. [Read Part 2]

They called her Eve. Born on December 26th, 2002, she would immediately become the center of controversy — and of an ugly custody battle. DNA tests would be demanded, delayed, demanded again, a Florida attorney would sue, seeking a temporary guardian for the child, and meanwhile the exact location, and even the true name, of Baby Eve remained entirely secret. The legal dispute would ultimately result in a congressional hearing, a House Resolution, and federal law. Because Eve, if she existed, was a clone.

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Eve’s story begins a few years earlier, at a September 2000 press conference in Montreal. At the table was a man named Claude Vorilhon, a former French journalist and the founder of a religious movement called Raëlism. He wore a small, tight bun in his hair, though his sloping bald pate shone slightly in camera light. With him was a woman perhaps even more striking: Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, with her copper-blonde hair, cool academic professionalism, sharp wit, and Parisian accent. They announced they had founded a new company, CLONAID, and claimed to be at the forefront of…