Antinori says birth of first cloned baby could occur around Christmas.

The birth of the first cloned human baby could occur around Christmas this year and at least one of the women is entering her second trimester, according to the fertility expert Severino Antinori, MD.

The first baby is a boy and will be followed by 4 others, Antinori told the Chicago Tribune Foreign Correspondent John Crewdson, in the first interview he has granted since the rumors of the cloned fetuses began circulating in April.

"The [number of] pregnancies is now 5," said Antinori. "Until now, no birth. No delivery. Miscarriage, only one."

Antinori said none of the cloned pregnancies were underway in Italy, which prohibits reproductive cloning. "We are working in 5 countries. Not Europe. Middle East, OK. Other countries," he told Crewdson, adding he will not divulge the names of the countries until "I have a few results."

The cloned pregnancies were all created the same way, by inserting DNA from the prospective father into an egg that had been stripped of its own DNA, then implanting the resulting embryo in the prospective mother's womb, the Tribune reported.

In addition to the 5 reported pregnancies, Antinori said 39 women are currently "in treatment" but some of the implanted embryos have failed to develop for various reasons.

Antinori, a world-renowned fertility specialist, caused a major media spectacle in August of last year when he testified before a National Academy of Sciences panel hearing on human cloning. Despite much skepticism that human cloning will work, and warnings that the outcomes could be disastrous by most experts who testified before the panel, Antinori said at the time that he planned to go ahead because infertile couples were lined up at his doorstep to undergo the procedure.

Antinori told Crewdson that 90% of the couples said they would prefer a child cloned from the DNA of one parent to using egg or sperm from an anonymous donor.

Despite Antinori's claims, many experts remain skeptical he has been successful.

But bioethicist Mark Siegler, professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago who directs the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics told the Tribune: "If what Dr. Antinori's claims turn-out to be true, he has violated every ethical standard that should govern scientific research."