Man not needed to make baby? Researchers grow sperm from stem cells, fertilize eggs

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Thursday, December 11, 2003

[JohnHuang2]

OF MICE AND MEN
Man not needed to make baby?
Researchers grow sperm from stem cells, fertilize eggs

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Posted: December 10, 2003
3:42 p.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Scientists have moved a step closer to creating life in a petri dish – without the use of a man.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School say they've succeeded in turning mouse embryonic stem cells into primitive sperm cells, and then used the sperm cells to fertilize eggs.

According to the British journal Nature, George Daley and his colleagues took tail-less precursors of sperm cells, cultured them for a week in a dish of retinoic acid (which caused them to multiply), and ejected them into unfertilized eggs. The eggs developed into embryos.

The technique is being touted as a new tool to help the emerging branch of gene therapy enable fathers in the future to sire children free of genetic flaws.

The scientists did not take their experiment as far as allowing the embryos to develop into live-born mice, but are now studying whether such a feat is possible.

Dr. John Gearhart, a Johns Hopkins University stem-cell researcher, cautioned that it is not clear whether the fertilized mouse eggs would have developed into normal embryos, reports the Associated Press.

The study involved embryonic germ cells, which appear in early embryos and mature into either sperm or egg cells.

Daley said research will allow scientists to study closely the development of germ cells, considered the "master" material being explored as the replacement-organ tissue of the future.

"Germ cells are in some sense the immortal cells of our species. They're really endowed and given the responsibility for perpetuating the species," Daley said.

[JohnHuang2]

Thursday, December 11, 2003

Quote of the Day by woodyinscc

[honeygrl]

Women will rule the world! *evil laugh*

[Dallas59]

At least some men can now say with confidence: "It's not my baby".

[disclaimer]

Women will rule the world! *evil laugh*

Otherwise known as the Apocalypse...

[earonthief]

Who's your Daddy?

[3catsanadog]

I reckon the feminazis are tittering with anticipation over this news.

[Grig]

Wouldn't the stem cell have to come from a male?

[cherry]

you would think after thousands of years we could have reached the conclusion that this world NEEDS both men and women to fulfil their roles....

its more than just Biblical....its physiological.....

[philosofy123]

No, women will still want the intimacy of love making as much as guys do. The good news is guys do not need to pay alimony or child support any more?. Guys will have fun with girls. Girls go to the store and buy a baby if they wish. That is their baby!

[DeepDish]

This is going to give the old father/son lecture a whole new meaning. You know, the one that starts "are you a man or a mouse"

[holdmuhbeer]

hey we're still needed to open jars and work on cars for ya.

[RightWhale]

Might be so, but the same for women sooner or later. Won't need sexual reproduction when they start cloning with the Bokanovsky process in the Central Hatchery.

[Billthedrill]

Hah. And who's gonna kill the spiders, huh?

[honeygrl]

well, that is true. We also need you for hooking up the TV and VCR and moving furniture.

[disclaimer]

Philosofy123 - I think it really doesn't matter if science learns how to grow babies in Barbie dolls. We, men and women, still need each other regardless. I was just following up on honeygrl's evil laugh that's all.

[Skywalk]

"It is over. The world of Men will fall and all will come to Darkness, and my City to ruin!"

[madison10]

hey we're still needed to open jars and work on cars for ya.

Why thank you! (Told my hubby last week that jars should come with men attached 'cause the darn things are so hard to open.)

[William Tell]

From the article: "Scientists have moved a step closer to creating life in a petri dish – without the use of a man. "

There is even more irony to this development.

Every normal man has both an X and a Y chromosome, the X from his mother and the Y from the father. Every normal female has two X chromosomes, one from each parent.

The irony is that it now "conceivable" to make a child without a contribution from a man, but only if that child is female. To make a male child still requires a Y chromosome from somewhere.

[Museum Twenty]

bump for later

[Maringa]

Would the purpose of this experiment/process be so that two female partners can have their own baby, without having to have a "man" be part of the process?