A few hundred yards away from the Vatican, a fertility clinic has become both the top destination for desperate couples and the pope's most troublesome neighbor. As clients enter, they are greeted in the narrow corridor by a huge portrait of a pregnant Madonna. The towering image is an auspicious sign for the half a dozen couples who eagerly wait their turn for a consultation. As they sit, a man in a green surgical suit rushes from room to room, often yelling in a raspy voice on his mobile phone. His harried assistant witnesses the scene with dismay. "I'm going to die. I swear I'm going to die," she mutters.

The taskmaster in the scrubs is Severino Antinori, a physician whose reputation among infertile couples is far overshadowed by his international fame as the man who wants to clone a human being. Antinori's unapologetic stance has provoked worldwide condemnation that reached its crescendo last summer, when an eminent representative of the Catholic Church compared him to Adolf Hitler.

   
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