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Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2615
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 07, 2008 - 11:51 pm: | 
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British scientists are ready to turn female bone marrow into sperm, cutting men out of the process of creating life.
The breakthrough paves the way for lesbian couples to have children that are biologically their own.
Gay men could follow suit by using the technique to make eggs from male bone marrow.
Researchers at Newcastle upon Tyne University say their technique will help lead to new treatments for infertility.
But critics warn that it sidelines men and raises the prospect of babies being born through entirely artificial means.
The research centres around stem cells - the body's 'mother' cells which can turn into any other type of cell.
According to New Scientist magazine, the scientists want to take stem cells from a woman donor's bone marrow and transform them into sperm through the use of special chemicals and vitamins.
...Couples who have children from artificial sperm created from women would be able to have girls only. This is because the female sperm would lack the Y-chromosome needed for boys.
Robin Lovell-Badge, of the National Institute for Medical Research in London, said the creation of female sperm is at least a decade away.
Josephine Quintavalle, of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, a campaign group, said: "We are looking at absurd solutions to very obscure situations and not addressing the main issue. Nobody is interested in looking at what is causing infertility - social reasons such as obesity, smoking and age.
"All these things would provide solutions which wouldn't grab the headlines, but a lot more people would get the response they want - which is to be able to have their own children."
...Debra Matthews, a U.S. bioethicist, said: "People want children and no one wants anyone else to tell them they can't have them."
An update of Britain's ageing fertility laws is going through Parliament and is likely to allow the use of artificial sperm and eggs in IVF treatment - but only for heterosexual couples.
The Newcastle research also paves the way for a woman to grow her own sperm and use it to fertilise her natural eggs, creating a child to which she is both mother and father.
Similarly, a man could be both father and mother to a child created with his own sperm and a lab-grown egg. Such children would be at high risk of genetic abnormality.
Full article: http://tinyurl.com/2wj2b9
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Renata
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 2533
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2008 - 09:36 am: |
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Where would a male carry this child? In a test tube?
This kind of technology is all kinds of creepy. |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2616
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2008 - 09:58 am: |
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Renata: He'd probably use a female gestational surrogate. For example, there is currently a booming "fertility tourism" business in India where folks from the US and elsewhere have been hiring women to gestate their children.
Other researchers, however, have been working on an "articficial womb." Some note that we already are halfway there with advances in incubator technology enabling some very small and underdevelloped premies to survive. But yes: At one level this kind of thing is definitely creepy and at the very least we should not do them, IMO, just because we can... |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6233
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2008 - 10:56 am: |
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You wish.
Don't hold your breath, Yvettep, you weirdo.
Ain't nobody going to be able to afford this while the American empire is fighting for survival.
Just have to do it the old fashioned way, booby. |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2617
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2008 - 11:34 am: |
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Hush, Chris! LOL! I did a "two-for-one" with my one (last, and only) pregnancy so this kinda thing is not for my benefit. And you'd be surprised at what folks will find a way to "afford." Like I said, there is already a booming cottage industry for surrogates. Just as we have outsourced some service and other jobs, so some are apparently outsourcing gestation and delivery.
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6239
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2008 - 11:57 am: |
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Just kidnap them and raise them as your own like they been doing!! |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 11395
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 08, 2008 - 12:57 pm: |
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A fascinating possibility!
Wonder if they are still doing research on people cloning themselves in order to have spare body parts to harvest in case any of their own need to be replaced.
Scientists have always advanced the idea that since a woman produces an egg every month she has the complete package within herself. But if a way could be found to make the egg develop it would always result in a female child. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6250
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 09, 2008 - 11:12 am: |
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Wonder if they are still doing research on people cloning themselves in order to have spare body parts to harvest in case any of their own need to be replaced.
(Don't worry. When they made you they broke the mold.
There has never been another like Cynique, Praises be to God! |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 11410
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 09, 2008 - 12:19 pm: |
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Poor old lame-brained crissy. Why would I be worried about being cloned?? It would be to my advantage. Is the word "logic" in your vocabulary??  |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9885
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 10, 2008 - 09:55 am: |
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The role and purpose of the father has been in the process of being killed off for a few decades now. This is just more dirt toss on the paternal grave. |
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