A report that scientists working for a religious cult have created the world's first cloned human being betrays a brutal mentality devoid of ethical principles, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church said today.
"The announcement, made without any proof, has already sparked scepticism and moral condemnation from most of the international scientific community," said Vatican spokesman Mr Joaquin Navarro-Valls.
"But the announcement itself is already the expression of a brutal mentality, devoid of any humane or ethical considerations," he added.
The statement followed a claim made yesterday in the US by the Raelian movement, which believes that human beings were originally created by extra-terrestrials and sees cloning as a route to immortality, that it had created the first-ever carbon-copy of a human.
The claim has yet to be confirmed by independent scientific experts.
AFP