The Advocate reports that a new study released last week by Kyoto University indicates that same-sex couples may someday be able to have children who are biologically related to both parents:
Researchers at Kyoto University in Japan have created eggs from stem cells in mice and used them to produce healthy offspring, NPR reports. They first used embryonic stem cells, then repeated the results stem cells created from adult cells, such as blood or skin. The same team previously created sperm from stem cells. “Stem cells can morph into any cell in the body,” observed NPR reporter Rob Stein.
If the results from mice could be duplicated in humans — a far-off possibility, granted, but scientists say mice are sufficiently similar to humans that it could happen — same-sex couples could create their own sperm and eggs and join them to have a child.
“There are lots of lesbian and gay couples who would be very excited about the possibility for the first time of being able to have children who are genetically their own,” Hank Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford University, told Stein.
What do you think of the possibility of same-sex couples having children that are biologically their own? Were this hypothetical process ever to become reality, would you and your partner/spouse ever consider taking advantage of it?
H/t: Gay Star News
That picture of the little pinky mice or rats is hilariously appropriate for this article. Well done!
PS: Why not? I don’t see what anyone could object to about this. Religious fundamentalists should be overjoyed – they oppose stem cell research, but here stem cells are being used to create life!
I see this turning into a new version of the adoption vs surrogacy debate. I won’t comment on that here, but I wouldn’t have biological children even if I were straight, so there’s my answer for if this were available.
I won’t be surprised if the first hurdle isn’t the technology at all — it will be NOM shifting from increasing losses on the marriage front to mounting scare campaigns to outlaw stem cell work.
Sweet. That would put an end to the “gays shouldn’t be allowed to marry because they can’t breed with each other” argument. My wife and I wouldn’t be using it at any rate, as we’re childfree by choice.
In the past I’ve wondered why they couldn’t ‘remove’ the tail from a sperm and somehow process the outer covering to make another sperm cell ‘think’ it was as egg and then fertilize it. Of course since eggs only have X chromosomes, one of the donor sperms would have to have an X, the other sperm could be either X (to make a female) or Y to make a male. In the case of two women, since both are X only, they could only have a female child. Of course working with stem cells is not the same as this, but the principle is the same.
I’m sure the distant future (if we survive that long) will hold undreamt of technologies that we cannot even imagine now.
However, ethical/religious/moral concerns should not be dismissed out of hand. I saw that picture of a human ear that was grown on the back of a mouse and found it very disturbing. Mary Shelley may have been very prescient about what science could and would bring in the future, as well as, the potential dangers.
I’d be against it. There are too many children already who need homes.
But then , I also think heteros need to breed less.
Ben in Oakland said, “I’d be against it. There are too many children already who need homes.”
I think it’s very admirable when gay people adopt children who need homes, but honestly, if my husband and I had the choice, I think we would want a child biologically related to both of us. It’s a moot point, though, because we are too old now.
If this research bears fruit, at least it won’t result in the reckless irresponsible breeding that is the hallmark of heterosexuality.
What we do technologically needs to be far outpaced by the ability as a society to engage in the underlying ethical issues.
We lack the strength to consider the ethics of genetically engineered corn, nano technology and nuclear weapons. But we proceed as little gods: “We can do it. We will do it. Kill the waters. Kill biologcial diversity. Kill the species. We know better.”
@Gary
Sperm and eggs aren’t just hulls for DNA. There is some other stuff in there that facilitates the combination of the two DNA parts. If you just put the genetic material together that’s missing and they don’t combine properly.