Lesbians to produce babies by all-female conception?
Pastor Dale Morgan
Lesbians to produce babies by all-female conception?*
Scientists want to produce synthetic sperm cells from woman's
bone-marrow tissue
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 13 April 2007
The Independent
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.
Creating sperm from women would mean they would only be able to produce
daughters because the Y chromosome of male sperm would still be needed
to produce sons. The latest research brings the prospect of female-only
conception a step closer.
"Theoretically is it possible," Professor Nayernia said. "The problem is
whether the sperm cells are functional or not. I don't think there is an
ethical barrier, so long as it's safe. We are in the process of applying
for ethical approval. We are preparing now to apply to use the existing
bone marrow stem cell bank here in Newcastle. We need permission from
the patient who supplied the bone marrow, the ethics committee and the
hospital itself."
If sperm cells can be developed from female bone-marrow tissue they will
be matured in the laboratory and tested for their ability to penetrate
the outer "shell" of a hamster's egg - a standard fertility test for sperm.
"We want to test the functionality of any male and female sperm that is
made by this way," Professor Nayernia said. But he said there was no
intention at this stage to produce female sperm that would be used to
fertilise a human egg, a move that would require the approval of the
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
The immediate aim is to see if female bone marrow can be lured into
developing into the stem cells that can make sperm cells. The ultimate
aim is to discover if these secondary stem cells can then be made into
other useful tissues of the body, he said.
The latest findings, published in the journal Reproduction: Gamete
Biology, show that male bone marrow can be used to make the early
"spermatagonial" stem cells that normally mature into fully developed
sperm cells.
"Our next goal is to see if we can get the spermatagonial stem cells to
progress to mature sperm in the laboratory and this should take around
three to five years of experiments," Professor Nayernia said.
Last year, Professor Nayernia led scientists at the University of
Gottingen in Germany who became the first to produce viable artificial
sperm from mouse embryonic stem cells, which were used to produce seven
live offspring.
His latest work on stem cells derived from human bone marrow suggests
that it could be possible to develop the techniques to help men who
cannot produce their own sperm naturally.
"We're very excited about this discovery, particularly as our earlier
work in mice suggests that we could develop this work even further,"
Professor Nayernia said.
Whether the scientists will ever be able to develop the techniques to
help real patients - male or female - will depend on future legislation
that the Government is preparing as a replacement to the existing Human
Fertilisation and Embryology Act.
A White Paper on genetics suggested that artificial gametes produced
from the ordinary "somatic" tissue of the body may be banned from being
used to fertilise human eggs by in vitro fertilisation.
Making babies without men - a literary view
LYSISTRATA
Aristophanes (c. 411BC)
After 21 years of war, the women of Athens, led by Lysistrata, take
matters into their own hands. Lysistrata suggests every wife and
mistress should refuse all sexual favours until peacetime. Before long
it proves effective, peace is concluded and the play ends with festivities.
HERLAND
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1914)
On the eve of the First World War, an isolated society entirely
comprising Aryan women is discovered by three male explorers. The women
reproduce asexually and live in an ideal society without war and
domination. This feminist utopia is a 20th-century vehicle for Gilman's
then-unconventional views of male and female behaviour, motherhood,
individuality, and sexuality. It is said to be based on Gilman's version
of utopia through Aryan separatism.
DISAPPEARANCE
Philip Wylie (1978)
At four minutes and 52 seconds past four one afternoon, the world
shatters into two parallel universes as men vanish from women and women
from men. With families and loved ones separated from one another, life
continues very differently as an explosion of violence sweeps one world
while stability and peace break down in the other.
THE CLEFT
Doris Lessing (2007)
In her novel, which has made this year's International Man Booker
shortlist, Lessing portrays a group of near-amphibious women who have no
need of men, known as Squirts, as they are impregnated by the wind, wave
or moon. But this is no feminist utopia: the women behave brutally,
mutilating male babies before placing them on a rock for eagles to
devour. The eagles turn out to be the men's allies, transporting the
babies to the forest where they are suckled by does. Lessing reveals she
was inspired by a scientific claim that "the primal human stock was
probably female, and that males came along later, as a kind of cosmic
afterthought".