No men OR women needed: Scientists create sperm and eggs from stem cells

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1223617/No-men-OR-women-needed-artificial-sperm-eggs-created-time.html ^ | October 29th, 2009

[TaraP]

Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which could change the face of parenthood. It paves the way for a cure for infertility and could help those left sterile by cancer treatment to have children who are biologically their own. But it 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. It centres on stem cells, widely seen as a repair kit for the body. Scientists at Stanford University in California found the right cocktail of chemicals and vitamins to coax the cells into becoming eggs and sperm.

[Question_Assumptions]

A lot of her patients are Catholic and she said the moment they find out their 9 year old son or daughter won't be able to see, they lose all inhibitions or religious convictions because their one objective is to do whatever it takes to protect their child.

And how many of those same parents, if told that they could get a transplant that they needed to save their child's life on the black market in Asia and knowing that the "donor" migth be an executed political prisoner or even a poor person murdered for their organs would make that choice, too? Of course many would. We care more about family than strangers and more about people we can see than people we can't. That's why ultrasounds and pictures of actual abortions are so important. It makes it real and closes the moral distance.

[BertWheeler]

With my luck, you are very correct!

[diamond6]

Is that a video game?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Still gonna need women until somebody comes up with an artificial uterus.

[Nosterrex]

There is a difference between “can” and “should”. Because you can do something, does not mean that you should do it. It reminds me of the movie, “Matrix,” when people are not born but grown. I suspect that in the future sexual intercourse will be strictly for recreation and entertainment, and that the state will become our parent and our god. In many ways, we have already reached that prediction with abortion and “entitlements.”

[BenKenobi]

They are using Embryonic Stem Cells here.

The thing is that you are killing babies to make them. It’s no different than what they do sometimes during an abortion, is they harvest the eggs from the unborn girl, which then are used later on. It’s very, very profitable.

[Nosterrex]

History is replete with societies that practiced infanticide and abortion. The Hebrews, pre-Israelites, were unique in that they believed that every stage of human life was sacred and a gift from God. This belief is reflected in the Judeo-Christian ethos. As our nation becomes more secular, the view of children as a blessing and gift is transformed into obligation and mistake, and human life is no longer seen as sacred. Many people believe that a human being is no more valuable than a pig or a dog. Animals kill and eat their offspring, so why not humans? Much of what I see today that goes as the “new morality,” is really the old morality of paganism.