Artificial Sperm, Eggs

Artificial Sperm, Eggs

No Men or Women Needed as Artificial Sperm, Eggs Created for First Time

Palo Alto, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which could change the face of parenthood. The research raises a number of moral and ethical concerns. These include the possibility of children being born through entirely artificial means, and men and women being sidelined from the process of making babies. Opponents argue that it is wrong to meddle with the building blocks of life and warn that the advances taking place to tackle infertility risk distorting and damaging relations between family members. The U.S. Government-funded research also offers the prospect of a 'miracle pill' which staves off the menopause, allowing women to wait longer to have a child. Scientists at Stanford University in California found the right cocktail of chemicals and vitamins to coax the cells into becoming eggs and sperm. The sperm had heads and short tails and are thought to have been mature enough to fertilize an egg. The eggs were at a much earlier stage but were still much more developed than any created so far by other scientists. The double success, published in the journal Nature, raises the prospect of men and women one day 'growing' their own sperm and eggs for use in IVF treatments. The American team used stem cells taken from embryos in the first days of life but hope to repeat the process with slivers of skin. The skin cells would first be exposed to a mixture which wound back their biological clocks to embryonic stem cell state, before being transformed into sperm or eggs. Starting with a person's own skin would also mean the lab-grown sperm or eggs would not be rejected by the body. The science also raises the possibility of 'male eggs' made from men's skin and 'female sperm' from women's skin.