Free Republic

It's uncertain whether egg cells can likewise be created from male human skin cells, but scientists are already attempting to achieve this, so that two men could genetically create a child, for instance. (LifeSiteNews) – Scientists in Japan have successfully bred a mouse with two genetic fathers by turning a male skin cell into an egg cell, raising ethical concerns regarding the technique’s potential use on humans. Katsuhiko Hayashi, a biologist at the University of Osaka, announced last week that his team had helped conceive seven “healthy” mice pups using two genetic “fathers” in each case, marking the “first case...

... Human embryonic stem cell research is the $10,000 toilet seat of the 21st century. Years ago, science created a cell that appears to be, in the words of an MIT study published last month, "virtually identical" to an embryonic stem cell but is cheaper, promises better compatibility to patients and kills no embryos. These new induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) "do all the things embryonic stem cells do," explains the father of human embryonic stem cells James Thomson. Harvard's David Scadden agrees that iPSC technology "is absolutely changing the field." IPSCs "perhaps even eliminate the need for human embryos...

Just four days before the House took up the issue, the journal Nature Biotechnology published a study showing that cells from amniotic fluid, collected in the course of routine amniocentesis during pregnancy, could have many of the appealing properties of embryonic stem cells, without requiring the destruction of embryos.