Is producing human sperm in a laboratory one step too far?
Post categories: The Phone-in
| 08:09 UK time, Wednesday, 8 July 2009
British scientists say they've made a medical breakthrough and created human sperm in a laboratory.
The scientists hope the sperm could help infertile men have a baby which is genetically their own. At the moment the sperm is created from embryo stem cells. Critics say that this is unethical, and is trading the creation of one life for another.
In order to help infertile men, scientists hope in the future to use stem cells from skin. This raises the possibility that sperm could be produced from a woman - and that a baby could be created without the need for a man.
In the phone-in, Nicky asked whether this is an exciting development for infertile couples or an unethical development open to abuse.
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There's more on this story on BBC News website.
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All these medical developments are open to abuse. In a world that is so overpopulated it seems to me that the last thing we need are more ways to create human life. Hasn't man done enough damage to the planet already?
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How can making sperm be either unethical or ethical? The act of synthesing sperm does not have any effect on anyone or any animal.
I often feel questions such as "Is it ethical to do X in the lab" rest on the false assumption that the lab should be or somehow actually is governed according to ethics. Lab practices, like anyone else's practices, are regulated solely by law enforcement agencies according to laws. Why should the synthesis of sperm be illegal? Does it harm anyone or threaten anyone in some way?
It is directly equivalent to asking if synthesing plastic-eating microbes is ethical.
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BBC - you have let that Christian fundamentalist from NI on again - she appears with regularity on your phone ins. Is she on your re-dial?
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Making sperm is an obvious, easy first step for differentiating stem cells and has no ethical implications whatsoever. I make millions every day without involving a lab. The ethical implications only appear when you decide what to do with them (much like the ones I make myself).
Of course, you could take the Monty Python approach and say "Every sperm is sacred".
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It is odd I find. Scientific breakthroughs like the above are alway ALWAYS - given easy tabloid tag lines like "Frankenstein's children" a danger - designer babies (I - film lover - then imagine someone trailing a "fit looking" celebrity waiting for him or her to shred a few skin cells) and then rushing off with the prize to some mad scientist somewhere to demand he or she make "sperm"!
I listened to an item on this and half cheered if it gives infertile men in a relationship the chance to begat children at some time in the far future.
So an easy question like have they gone too far - should perhaps be - can they and should they go more carefully?
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