The prospect of all-female conception - Independent Online Edition > Science & Technology

[groovychk]

Originally published at Twixel.net. You can comment here or there.

The prospect of all-female conception - Independent Online Edition > Science & Technology
Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today.

Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman’s bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible to produce rudimentary sperm cells from male bone-marrow tissue.

The researchers said they had already produced early sperm cells from bone-marrow tissue taken from men. They believe the findings show that it may be possible to restore fertility to men who cannot naturally produce their own sperm.

But the results also raise the prospect of being able to take bone-marrow tissue from women and coaxing the stem cells within the female tissue to develop into sperm cells, said Professor Karim Nayernia of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

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Interesting science. One more piece in the puzzle.

Comments

[azzy23.livejournal.com]

And all those offspring would be female... leading to an entirely female human race... that's mildly terrifying.

[groovychk.livejournal.com]

Hehe - indeed. Certainly no desire for that on my end :-)
But in reality it'd just lead to female-female couples being able to have children and for infertile men to be able to father children.

[deviantgm.livejournal.com]

When this happened in "Y: The Last Man", every man on earth suffered a mass hemmorhaging and died. Granted, cloning was the trigger, but the idea was the same: obsolescence of men led to immediate termination. And since comic books always tell the truth...

The Chicken or the Egg?

[(Anonymous)]

I prefer the old fashion way. Natural Selection... Man + Woman = Baby.

MDH

Re: The Chicken or the Egg?

[groovychk.livejournal.com]

Ah - but this advances our scientific understanding and allows any couple to have children - infertile or not.