Posted on 02/04/2008 6:36:32 PM PST by Dajjal
British scientists are ready to turn female bone marrow into sperm, cutting men out of the process of creating life.
The breakthrough paves the way for lesbian couples to have children that are biologically their own.
Gay men could follow suit by using the technique to make eggs from male bone marrow.
[snip]
But critics warn that it sidelines men and raises the prospect of babies being born through entirely artificial means.
The research centres around stem cells - the body's 'mother' cells which can turn into any other type of cell.
According to New Scientist magazine, the scientists want to take stem cells from a woman donor's bone marrow and transform them into sperm through the use of special chemicals and vitamins.
[snip]
Early-stage sperm have already been produced from male bone marrow.
Taking stem cells from an adult donor - possibly a cancer patient - removes the ethical problems associated with using embryos.
[snip]
Researchers at the Butantan Institute in Brazil, meanwhile, claim to have turned embryonic stem cells from male mice into both sperm and eggs. They are now working on skin cells.
If their experiments succeed, the stage would be set for a gay man to donate skin cells that could be used to make eggs.
These could then be fertilised by his partner's sperm and placed into the womb of a surrogate mother.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Nowhere in the story is there any talk of "creating life" ex nihilo.
As for expense, yes, it would be expensive -- but what the New Scientist article was saying is that the price is now coming down.
Previously, you'd have needed to abort a child, take it's stem cells, empty the nucleus, insert your chromosones into the nucleus, and then fashion the stem cells into sperm or ova.
Now that a way has been discovered to change skin-cells into stem-cells, the process -- while still expensive -- is significantly cheaper and thus more doable.
Precursors to an unnatural pc state in which children are the property of the atate. An abomination..
Well, sure. After they'd all killed each other.
Ever been around a group of women when there aren't enough men around? Yikes.
Man+Woman=Cheapest, most doable way to have a child since the creation of Adam and Eve! :-)
Satan is pushing hard, isn’t he?!!!
I do not disagree.
But soon Adam and Steve will have their own genetic child(ren) and laws and society will be forced to accomodate.
When the news first broke in November that skin-cells can be turned into stem-cells, conservatives and pro-lifers generally were ecstatic with glee. Just last week Pope Benedict XVI was praising this new technology!
But it seems that there is a little fly in the ointment.
Next they’ll figure out how to sue themselves for child support.
They have been doing this for over sixty years. How else can you explain Hillary.
rut ro!
Then you can actually be your own grandpa?
Hey, Mardi Gras is tomorrow....how about “Abbott and Costello Go To Mars?”
The economy of such a society would be radically different from our own. The only businesses would be real estate and travel, and all retailers would be shoe shops.
It would prevent the rise of another Fred Phelps.
Um, aren’t there more important things that scientists could be working on?
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