Slashdot Mirror
Mice Produced Using Artificial Sperm
vasanth writes to tell us scientists have successfully grown mice from artificial sperm. The sperm was created from embryonic stem cells and implanted into female mice. There were a few problems, including that some of the mice showed abnormal patterns of growth and difficulty breathing. The hope here is to assist couples who are having difficulties with conception.
Not artificial sperm, but artificially grown sperm.
People took'sperm seeds' from stem cells and grew them into mature sperm outside the gonads.
Regardless, it looks like males have one less reason for existance.
It could be worse, it could be Monday.
Given some time, eggs may also be made as well as sperm from stem cells, and homosexual male couples can also have biological children with the help of a woman to carry the fetus.
The world will not get better through technology. We must seek to be better people.
With this technology, two women could generate a baby that has 23 chromosomes from each of them. Men would no longer be necessary to create a new human being that is genetically half of two different individuals.
And since both "halves" would be providing an X chromosome and never a Y, the resulting baby would be female... every time.
If enough women in a society opt for this form of male-unnecessary reproduction, over a few generations there will be no more males in that society.
I can see Gloria Steinem and others of similar political persuasion creating a female-only society somewhere with this technology. An estrogen utopia.
I, for one, welcome our Lesbian overlords.
"I have as much authority as the pope, I just
don't have as many people who believe it" - George Carlin
Then don't. Clothes turn people into lower mamals. Though we don't have the insight right now, I bet in 50 years, we'll figured out why God didn't want you to wear clothes. All life exists for us to look at, and in some species will havve fur, or occasionally produce a viable hairy offsprring. Given life's penchant for procreation, the fact that god has said NO to people wearing clothes should be taken as an extremely stong hint that it just shouldn't be done.
Become nudist. There are tons of guys waiting for women who actually want to show off their body.
Just because we can, doesn't mean its right. Or smart.
I'll probably be modded down for this...
How many couples really want to conceive a mouse, anyway?
If God didn't want you to have kids, this procedure wouldn't work. I always get a kick out of people who claim that God is all-powerful, and in the next breath claim that scientists are doing something that's against His will. They never seem to understand the inherent contradiction in those two statements...
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
Actually it is a misconception that adoption is cheaper and easier. Average adoption costs are $12k US. Significantly more than the doctors bill for our first child. Also adoption, at least in the state of CA, is very dificult and requires 50+ hours of classes. Much more time invested then a couple hours at a bar and some drinks. ;)
They are using embryonic stem cells because of the benefits that embryonic stem cells offer over other stem cells when doing research. It is clear that once they can get the procedure working with embryonic stem cells in mice, the next step will be to get it working with non-embryonic stem cells.
The main abnormality in human children conceived through this method seems to be an unhealthy obsession with cheese and a tendency to scamper.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Everbody knows that easily 'humanized' animals (i.e. cute and furry, big eyes, or perceived intelligence) get complete protection. Whereas ugly animals can just suck it. That's why everybody freaked out when they found out dolphins were being killed in tuna nets. But nobody cared that 1000's more TUNA were being killed in tuna nets. I mean, have you ever seen a tuna? They are ug-leee.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
I hate to have to tell you this, but girls aren't passing you up because you're not aggressive or violent enough, it's because you're ugly, boring, or both. Sorry. If it makes you feel better, I'm right there with you.
I'm not convinced that 'helping infertile couples have children' is the ultimate rationale - is everyone ENTITLED to have children?
I mean, is it so far fetched to believe that several million years of trial and error have produced a system of conception that is fairly fault-tolerant but will self-abort if a certain minimum level of viability is not achieved? And that short-circuiting this might not be in anyone's best interest - the parents', the child's, society's?
So then we come in with near-godlike medical technology, and FORCE certain sets of gametes together which would otherwise fail? Am I the only one that has a moral problem with that?
Personally, I'm a HUGE fan of the 'conventional' method of fertilization; if it works, great. If it doesn't, maybe there's a very good reason it doesn't.
-Styopa
Yes, it sounds like this could be a really good thing for humans, by stopping evolution cold and keeping mutations out. The problem with evolution is that it's actually a bad thing for humans, because while we still have mutations and such, we no longer use natural selection to weed out the bad mutations. Instead of just allowing sick people to die, we save them with medicine, and they reproduce, making more people with serious genetic diseases.