Breakthrough for lesbians wanting children... NOW should be rejoicing.
Australian Researchers Fertilize Eggs Without Sperm
By Marie McInerney
7-10-1
ADELAIDE (Reuters) - Australian researchers said on Tuesday they may have found a way to fertilize an egg with cells from any parts of the body, rather than sperm, in a new study which offers hope to infertile men and even lesbian couples.
Australian infertility scientist Orly Lacham-Kaplan said early research on mice could produce a breakthrough for many men who have no sperm or sperm-making cells.
``This is the group for which this kind of technique probably will be very helpful,'' she said. ``A lot of (these) people would like to father their own biological children.''
Lacham-Kaplan said the research, if successful in humans, also theoretically could allow babies to be born without any input from men, although she admitted that such an outcome could open up an ethical can of worms.
``If, as a technology, it would be used as a treatment for infertile couples then I would accept it very well,'' she told Reuters in a telephone interview.
``However I think we need to draw the line where it is used, and I believe a lot of ethical groups would draw the line.''
Lacham-Kaplan's research unit at the Monash University's Institute of Reproduction and Development in Melbourne has so far been able to fertilize mice eggs with somatic cells from the non-reproductive parts of the animals' bodies.
The process has effectively ``mimicked'' fertilization with sperm, allowing the team to grow embryos in laboratory cultures.
The next critical test in the study is to transfer hundreds of those embryos into surrogate mice mothers, to see if they can live and flourish.
``Then we have a long process of testing those pups, (to see) whether they will be born, whether they are normal, whether they are capable of reproducing, and if the offspring from those pups will be normal as well,'' she said.
``If we get live, healthy babies out of those embryos, then we'll say 'yes' this is a possibility of fertilizing an egg with a somatic cell,'' she said.
The mice experiments were expected to take up to a year.
If they are successful -- and Lacham-Kaplan admits to some doubts -- then it will be possible to experiment on humans, although where such trials could take place would be limited.
Australia, like many other countries, has banned all experiments involving somatic cell transfer into human eggs, but the United States could be an option, she said.
``At the moment I feel there will be more problems than success, but if it is a success, it will be quite a good surprise,'' she said. ``It would be an incredible breakthrough.'' |
