This one is a shocker, straight out of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1931), which was more concerned with the transformation of human biology than George Orwell’s 1984. The technological developments seem to be fast moving to lab-grown human babies, much like lab-grown meat. Human sperm and eggs are grown in a lab, fertilised, and the baby developed in a purely artificial womb. The Japanese are leading the world in this research, perhaps motivated by Japan’s declining birth rate, about which nothing seems to work to stop inevitable population crash. Thus, I suspect there is a eugenic root cause here, but the sales line is that it will aid same sex couples, so this must be all fine. However, the imagine of babies rolling off a production line, is irresistible, and distressing to all holding to the sanctity of life from a Christian perspective.
https://www.earth.com/news/lab-grown-babies-revolutionary-science-or-ethical-disaster/
“In a breakthrough that could revolutionize human reproduction, Japanese scientists are making significant strides in the field of lab-grown human babies, potentially overcoming the challenges of infertility, same-sex parenthood, and age-related childbearing restrictions.
The research could herald a new era in which human eggs and sperm are grown in a laboratory setting – developing in an artificial womb and resulting in a viable fetus.
Kyushu University‘s Professor Katsuhiko Hayashi, a frontrunner in this field, is leading the research. Having already proven the process viable in mice, Professor Hayashi estimates that the technology could be adapted for human use within the next five years.
However, this unprecedented scientific progress doesn’t come without controversy. The capability of producing babies in a lab raises some intense ethical dilemmas. It means that women of any age could potentially have babies, promoting a swarm of questions around biological, social, and chronological norms.
Furthermore, the creation of custom-made human sperm and eggs might tempt some parents to genetically tailor their offspring using gene-editing tools in pursuit of a so-called “perfect child.”
Highlighting the capabilities of this technology, Dr. Hayashi and his team recently achieved a remarkable feat: creating seven mice with two male biological parents.
The experts accomplished this by converting skin cells from a male mouse into a viable egg, which was then fertilized. The technology behind this, known as in vitro gametogenesis (IVG), holds major potential for human reproduction.
IVG works by extracting cells from a person’s blood or skin and reprogramming them into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), a type of stem cell that can theoretically differentiate into any cell in the body, including egg and sperm cells.
These cells can then be used to create embryos and, potentially, be implanted into women’s wombs. So far, scientists have managed to make human eggs and sperm in this manner, but creating viable embryos remains a hurdle to overcome.
While Dr. Hayashi estimates five years for the production of egg-like cells from humans, he cautions that it could take another 10 to 20 years of testing before doctors deem the process safe for clinical use. Professor Henry Greely of Stanford University agrees, predicting a similar timeline for proof of concept and safety testing.
Commenting on the ambitious timeline, Jeanne Loring, a researcher at the Scripps Research Institute, said in an interview with The New York Times in 2017, “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was five years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 25 years.””