Scientists reportedly created synthetic human embryos without the use of egg or sperm, a development that crosses an unsettling ethical boundary and raises significant questions about the consequences of such research.
Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, a professor at the California Institute of Technology, elucidated the experiment at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.
“Our human model is the first … human embryo model that specifies amnion and germ cells, precursor cells of egg and sperm,” Zernicka-Goetz told the Guardian.
“It’s beautiful and created entirely from embryonic stem cells,” she added.
She elaborated on the technique of generating human embryo-like models by reprogramming embryonic stem cells, an approach that has the potential to better understand genetic disorders and recurrent miscarriages.
The study was a joint project of the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology.
“I just wish to stress that they are not human embryos,” Zernicka-Goetz told CNN.
“They are embryo models, but they are very exciting because they are very … similar to human embryos and [a] very important path towards discovery of why so many pregnancies fail,” she added.
Daily Mail reported:
They do not have the beginnings of a brain or a beating heart, but do include cells which would go on to form the placenta and yolk sac.
he synthetic embryos are not covered by laws in the UK or in most countries around the world, meaning that they come with serious ethical and legal issues regarding the use of human embryos in a lab.
Until this breakthrough, scientists had to adhere to the 14-day rule which meant they were limited to allowing embryos to develop in a lab for a maximum of two weeks.
After this point researchers would have to wait until further along its development to pick up their study, relying on pregnancy scans and embryos donated to research.
The desire to understand this period of an embryo’s development – which starts at day 14 and ends around day 28 – was the main motivation behind the work to create synthetic human embryos.
Even if it were possible for synthetic embryos to develop through the early stages, it would be unlawful to implant them into a patient’s womb. It would raise enormous ethical questions about the potential for synthetic human life and would likely be subject to intense scrutiny and potential legal action in many jurisdictions.
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