Growing human babies from scratch in a lab could be possible in just five years thanks to a new breakthrough.
Researchers in Japan are on the verge of being able to create human eggs and sperm in the lab from scratch, which would then grow in an artificial womb.
Professor Katsuhiko Hayashi, a Japanese scientist from Kyushu University who has already figured out the process in mice, thinks he is only five years away from replicating the results in humans.
But there are ethical concerns because it means women of any age can have babies. Parents may also want to engineer their offspring to have certain traits using gene-editing tools, giving way to the notion of the supposedly perfect child.
Professor Katsuhiko Hayashi of Kyushu University (pictured), a Japanese scientist who has already figured out how to perform abortion in mice, surmised that it would take five years to produce egg-like cells from humans
Dr. Hayashi and his team recently created seven mice with two male biological parents, using skin cells from a male mouse to form a viable egg and then fertilize it.
The ability to produce custom-made human sperm and eggs in the laboratory is called in vitro gametogenesis (IVG).
It works by taking cells from a person’s blood or skin and reprogramming them to become induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells).
In theory, these cells can become any cell in the body, including eggs and sperm.
They could then be used to make embryos and implanted in women’s wombs.
Scientists have been able to make very basic human eggs and sperm this way, but have not yet been able to make embryos.
Dr Hayashi estimated it would take five years to produce egg-like cells from humans, with another 10-20 years of testing before doctors believe the process can be used safely in clinics. .
Stanford University professor Henry Greely said Free Thought he estimated that researchers will still need five to ten years to arrive at a reliable proof of concept, plus another one or two decades for safety testing.
Jeanne Loring, a researcher at the Scripps Research Institute, said abortion in human reproduction said 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.”
This would mean that scientists could generate sperm and eggs for infertile people from one of their blood cells, for example.
About one in 10 couples in the United States struggles to conceive – and some of them are same-sex couples or hopeful single parents who must rely on sperm or egg donations, on the IVF and, in some cases, surrogate mothers.
But there are still many ethical, legal and safety questions surrounding abortion.
Some ethicists worry that shutting the door on infertility will quickly open the floodgates to custom babies, eugenics, and legal issues our society may not be prepared to address.
This could allow people to steal other people’s DNA using a lock of hair and make babies without their consent.
In 2016, Japanese researchers created stem cells using eight-week-old mice, choosing those that had lost a Y chromosome for some reason.
The scientists then manipulated the cells to copy the remaining X chromosome and create a cell with two X genes – what would generally be considered a female cell.
“The biggest trick is the duplication of the X chromosome,” Dr. Hayashi said.
They transformed these cells into eggs and used sperm from male mice to fertilize them in the lab.
The process has resulted in the birth of more than half a dozen healthy pups.
Dr Hayashi told New Scientist he believes the door is now open to children born to two fathers.
The objective is to reproduce this same process with human cells.
“Technologically, it will be possible [in humans] even in 10 years,” he told the Guardian.
“I don’t know if they will be available for breeding.
“This is not only a question for the scientific program, but also for [society].’
