A couple of years ago, scientists in the US achieved an enormous breakthrough: they took stem cells from a mouse, artificially differentiated them into sperm, and fertilised an egg with the result. Now, they've begun duplicating the process in humans, successfully differentiating human bone marrow stem cells into spermatagonial cells, the precursors of sperm. It's only the first step, and there's still a long way to go, but if it pans out it will see us able to differentiate both sperm and eggs, vastly increasing the range of infertility problems which can be treated, as well as allowing gay couples to have kids using only their own genetic material (gay males would obviously still need to find a birth mother). And given the centrality of children to many people's lives, and the degree of unhappiness infertility can cause, IMHO that can only be a Good Thing.
But ... but ... TEH GAY!!!11!1!!
ReplyDeleteAnd? That doesn't mean they might not want children, and now (well, in ten or twenty years anyway, if the research is successful) nature won't be a barrier to it.
ReplyDeleteThis means that more people will be able to satisfy their desires. Sounds pretty good to me.
and IMHO, the rate at which science's ability to do things exceeds society's ability to deal with the consequences of doing those same things continues to accelerate..
ReplyDeleteYeah, nothing like "people as products" to make for a better world.
ReplyDeleteAnyone remember Dune and the axolotl tanks?
Gives new meaning to the old "knee humping".
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