Scientists are getting closer to the possibility of making a new person from skin or blood cells – without the need for sex.
This approach goes well beyond in vitro fertilization, which combines egg and sperm in a laboratory, because it doesn’t require natural eggs or sperm.
Called in vitro gametogenesis, or IVG, it promises to someday provide a cure for many types of infertility, to slow or even turn off biological clocks, and to enable the kind of embryo selection that sends chills up many spines.
The technology for making babies from cells other than eggs and sperm still remains a decade away or more.
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But now – before the science turns possibility into reality – is a good time for the public to consider the implications of IVG, said I. Glenn Cohen, an expert on the intersection of law and bioethics at Harvard Law School.
“There’s certainly a lot of publications and a lot of interest in the scientific community, and it’s great that we’re introducing it to a larger community,” Cohen said after the first day’s presentations. “If people have serious ethical concerns, this is the time to spell them out.”
