Late June 17th, 1999, the BBC Online Network was reporting the success of the first human clone. Last November,American Cell Technology (ACT), used the cell from a man’s leg and acow’s egg to create a stem cell that lived for 12 days and thendestroyed it before it become an embryo. After 14 days offertilization, an early life form usually attaches itself to a woman’suterus and continues development. Many in the academic communitybelieve other zygotes have been created since then and destroyed. ACTsay they have no intention of attempting to use a cloned human embryoto start a pregnancy but plan to use this technology only for”therapeutic” purposes.

In a hastily prepared press release, the Redmond campus of Microsoftannounced a similar product scheduled to ship sometime in early Augustdespite reports of a buggy “life creation” process and its backwardcompatibility with “non-clones”.

Steve Jobs of Apple Computer could not be reached for comment.