Summary
Experts said it is not yet known whether the strategy would work in humans.
“Mice aren’t people,” said Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University. “And it’s a complicated method.”
But there’s a darker side to making sex cells in the lab, said Greely, author of the 2016 book, “The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction.”
“If this worked,” he said, “you could make eggs from sperm from 8-year-olds. You could make eggs from sperm from fetal remains. You could make eggs from sperm from somebody who has been dead for years, but whose cells were frozen. That gets a little weird.”
Someday, perhaps, it may be possible to create both eggs and sperm from the same person, creating what Greely calls a “unibaby.” “You’re pregnant — by yourself,” he said. “I can’t imagine a good reason to do this.”
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