Scientists have shown for the first time that sperm created from embryonic stem cells can be used to produce live offspring.
The experiment, carried out by researchers in Britain and Germany using mice, culminated in the births of seven babies. Six of these, whose origins were owed to sperm derived from these “multipurpose” cells, lived to adulthood, according to a press release from the University of Newcastle on Tuesday.
The breakthrough was reported in the academic journal Developmental Cell. The team described how they developed a new strategy for generating mature sperm cells in the laboratory using embryonic stem cells from mice. The researchers then went on to test whether this sperm would function in real life.
The breakthrough will help scientists to understand more about how animals produce sperm and the knowledge has potential implications for the treatment of male infertility.
Do they have a soul? Or are these science-created mice godless?
Re: “Are these science-created mice godless?”
As far as I know science has never created life. Not even close. The sperm is developed or cultured from naturally occuring stem cells and the egg also came about naturally. Stem cells exist in multiple forms and the best results so far come from the umbilical cord blood or from adult stem cells.
[edited: see commenting guidelines]
One need not kill an unborn human to obtain valuable stem cells nor use tax payer dollars to finance. By definition, if there is a God responsible for all life then nothing is godless, except perhaps the commentator or other skeptics in their own minds.
Men need not apply….
So, uh, Doug. Then these mice are accepted into your church? Good for you.
Doug:
Hopefully you soon get that bill passed to outlaw menstruation.
Soon, intercourse will loose all meaning…
#3 moss, mice have been going to church for years, but they’re often quiet as a church mouse, so as not to attract too much attention. Of course, once they join the church, they’re expected to give a tenth of their cheese to support the church and its ministry 😉
+Dugg!
Oops, wrong site.
Do science-created mice dream of electric sheep?
Give it a few months, to see if it is like that Korean cloning scam – and the sperm is actually from some of the lab assistants… [grin]
C’mon Johnny-Cakes. At least wink in the direction of Philip K. Dick.
This would mean that parents would skip the son/daughter and spoil their grandchildren right away.
Joke aside, this sounds closer and closer to eugenics.
KHHHAANNN!
Leave it to the moderators here to bring in religion into the question when the real issue is #2 – who needs men? So if we mix eugenics with ectogenesis, do you end up with a race of Super Androgynics? Then Kirk wouldn’t be yelling “Khan”, he’d be yelling “Paaaaat!”
tkane: With no men who will open all the mayonaise jars?
I think the usual superstitious declamation about no one “creating life” will probably go by the boards sooner than we all think. If you follow some of the really creative efforts that already have funding in such areas, you have to be impressed.
There are folks like Norman Packard whose research lab, Proto Life, is dedicated to the design and construction of an entirely synthetic life form.
It’s been over a half-century since amino acids were first synthesized by researchers who duplicated the basic ingredients of primordial Earth [as understood then]. Hardware and software, technology in general make research like this more likely to succeed, nowadays.
#13: As a woman once told me upon hearing this question, women would redesign jars so men weren’t required.
John Stewart on the Daily Show talking about President Bush’s veto on stem cell research, the value of human life and the Iraq war… worth watching