Prof. Michel Rebel, head of the Bioethics Committee in Israel: Those who demand a ban on all research believe that nothing good can come out of science, and most scientists do not agree with that
British scientists announced on Monday at a conference in Copenhagen that they had succeeded in developing in the laboratory primitive forms that would lead to human sperm and egg cells produced from stem cells
The achievement, which was announced at a conference of fertility experts, may lead to new treatments for couples suffering from fertility problems as well as to the need for therapeutic cloning that may help cure a wide range of diseases. In a conference in Copenhagen that will last until Thursday, 5,300 researchers and doctors from all over the world are participating: "We have shown that we can produce primary germ cells. These are cells that can become either a sperm cell or an egg depending on the gender of the embryo from which the stem cell was produced." Says Prof. Harry Moore (Moore), a biologist working in the field of reproduction at the University of Sheffield in the UK.
In cultures, we were able to show, using embryonic stem cells, that some of the cells later developed into a late stage of sperm cell development." Moore said. Although Moore and his team did not create sperm from the stem cells of an embryo donated for research, they believe this will be the next step. "We are not that far from it. We believe we can build a functioning sperm cell," he added.
Later in the process, when the technique will be more complete, and if it is proven to be safe, (this "if" is also subject to a big question mark according to Moore), it may help treat people who do not produce the sperm or egg themselves, which will save them the need for a donor.
If it is possible to develop a human egg from an embryonic stem cell, it may eliminate the need for egg donation for therapeutic cloning.
One of the obstacles to developing therapeutic cloning is that eggs must be donated through women for this process. If we can use embryonic sperm cells we already have to make more eggs, we can use them for therapeutic cloning," Moore added.
Therapeutic cloning, in which a human embryo is cloned to obtain stem cells for research and later destroyed, is controversial. In the US, the law prohibits the use of federal funds to destroy human embryos.
Scientists at Seoul National University in South Korea, who cloned the first human embryo, announced in May that they had created embryonic stem cells from nine patients. The South Korean researchers said they would not clone human embryos, but would use eggs donated from women who had undergone fertility treatments and decided they no longer wanted yaks to create cells that would never become humans.
Bhuz Aflatonian, a member of the University of Sheffield team who presented their research to the European Society of Fertility and Embryology in Copenhagen, said their achievement is important for understanding the causes of infertility and the potential harmful effects of environmental chemicals on the development of fertility.
Prof. Michel Rebel, head of the Israeli Committee for Bioethics, said in a conversation with the Hedaan website that the attempts to create sperm and egg cells from stem cells are not new, but they certainly raise significant ethical questions: "The possibility of producing sperm and egg cells from embryonic stem cells opens up interesting possibilities for fertility treatment, but also raises Ethical questions are very big because it is possible to maintain fertility outside the body and outside the intervention of parents by stem cells that are in laboratories to produce sperm and egg and perhaps in this way a child can be born attributed to the cells kept in the laboratory for many years.
What do you mean when you talk about disconnecting reproduction from the family?
"There will be fertilization of cells that are in freezing and as soon as you want it will be possible to take them out of freezing, to sort them into sperm cells and eggs and in this way it would be possible to hold human life in a distant spaceship that would be thawed after hundreds of years without needing a male and a female to create them. The children that will be born will grow up and be able to develop a new planet for human settlement."
Aren't you afraid?
"As in all topics in bioethics, my position is that it is good to be afraid, it is good to raise concerns, but you also need to see the benefits. The bioethical guidelines and the bioethical debate should be set as a barrier to determine the limits of what is permissible. The whole meaning of bioethics is to be a companion to science in order to define which scientific discoveries to apply in society or to apply partially, therefore one should be optimistic in a combination of ethics and science that can bring out the best in scientific inventions and prevent unwanted applications. This is true for any scientific invention and those who want to ban research on cloning or the creation of sperm cells or eggs from stem cells in a blanket way say that science can never come out of anything good and this is a statement that is not acceptable not to most scientists and certainly not to me."
