According to a book written as a chronicle and published in the United States in 1978, the first human clone would have been created on commission in 1976 and brought to term. Its author was David Rorvik, an independent science journalist fascinated by genetics and paranormal phenomena.
The Book That Shocked the World
In 1978, David Rorvik, a journalist specializing in medical topics who worked for the New York Times and Time magazine, wrote a book called In His Image: The Cloning of Man. In the book, Rorvik claimed that a human clone had just been born. Everyone believed the story. After all, it was a text written by a known and credible journalist, and published by a well-known publisher in the medical field. However, the scientific community was not so credulous.
A Millionaire’s Request: The Clandestine Experiment
The story was worthy of becoming a science fiction screenplay. In the book, Rorvik told how, one day in 1973, he received a call from a millionaire in California. This man, whose real name is unknown but who appears as "Max" in the book, explained to the journalist that he wanted an heir, but the way to get one had to be cloning. Max offered Rorvik a real fortune to find him a scientist capable of making his wishes come true.
Rorvik gathered a team of scientists and set up a clandestine laboratory on a small secret island in the Pacific. Finally, after three years of experiments, the scientists were able to produce a viable human embryo that had Max's DNA. This embryo was implanted in the uterus of a surrogate mother, a native of the island, whose code name was "Sparrow". Nine months later, according to Rorvik's chronicle, the first human clone was born on the island.
Media Frenzy and Scientific Skepticism
Given the connections and credibility the journalist enjoyed, on March 3, 1978, his story was the cover story of the New York Post, which besides the front page dedicated its best pages to it. For several days everyone talked about Rorvik, Max and his clone. The book, naturally, sold by the ton.
But not everything was rosy. News like that sooner or later arouses the interest of some politician, and so it was that a few weeks later the United States Congress designated a commission to conduct an investigation into the matter. The fact is that Rorvik's book had been received with great skepticism by the scientific community. Even in March 1978 the prestigious magazine Science published an article written by a group of researchers that undermined the credibility of Rorvik's story.
Like any good scam, the book had credible foundations. For example, the cloning technique described throughout its pages was based on successful experiments carried out in the 1960s on amphibians. But researchers knew that this technique was not easily applicable to mammals. Things began to go definitively wrong for the writer when British biologist Derek Broomhall, whose works were cited in the text, sued the journalist and the publisher for defamation.
Shortly thereafter, a judge from the Philadelphia court asked Rorvik to reproduce the human cloning experiment. Faced with the impossibility of doing so, the judge declared in 1981 that the book was a lie and a joke. It was the end of Rorvik. The publisher had to pay a real fortune to Broomhall, and Rorvik ended up ruined.
Despite all the scandal and overwhelming evidence that everything had been an invention, David Rorvik never wanted to admit his imposture. In an interview with Omni magazine in 1997 he still insisted that his story was true.
More information: Museum of Hoaxes
