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Human Sperm Produced In the Laboratory

Posted by timothy on from the that's-not-starting-from-scratch dept.

duh P3rf3ss3r writes "The BBC is carrying a report from a team of researchers at Newcastle University who claim to have developed a the first 'artificial' human sperm from stem cells. The research, reported in the journal Stem Cells and Development, involved selecting meristematic germ cells from a human embryonic stem cell culture and inducing meiosis, thus producing a haploid gamete. The authors claim that the resulting sperm are fully formed, mature, human sperm cells but the announcement has been greeted with mixed reaction from colleagues who claim the procedure is ethically questionable and that the gametes produced are of inferior levels of maturation."

38 of 368 comments (clear)

  1. I SWEAR by Phizzle · · Score: 4, Funny

    I DIDNT DO IT!

    --
    I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
    1. Re:I SWEAR by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Funny

      I DIDNT DO IT!

      This is Slashdot. That goes without saying.

      --
      See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  2. So what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What's the big deal? I generate human sperm at least once a day and I don't even need a laboratory.

    1. Re:So what? by LordKaT · · Score: 4, Funny

      I have a lab and he *HATES* it when I try to generate sperm.

    2. Re:So what? by cashman73 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or, 3. if they took stem cells from a lesbian, they could generate some sperm for her, thereby along her to impregnate her other female partner. Next, all they need to do is to generate an egg cell from a homosexual male stem cell. Then, once same-sex couples can successfully reproduce, the religious right is going to go apeshit and all hell is going to break loose! ;-)

    3. Re:So what? by interkin3tic · · Score: 3, Funny

      I wasn't sure where you were going until the end there. That would be entertaining. How long before we'd see the first attempts at defining a person as the result of a straight man's sperm fertilizing a straight female's egg in a marriage. Probably called "Defense of humanity" act.

    4. Re:So what? by ElKry · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And, on a chilling (for me) twist, if they took stem cells from a woman, they could generate some sperm for her, thereby allowing her to impregnate herself .

    5. Re:So what? by Thiez · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You wouldn't want to do that though, since this would basically be incest++. If we ever get the tech to make impregnating yourself with yourself possible, it'll probably get banned because it'd lead to a higher chance of birth defects.

    6. Re:So what? by interkin3tic · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wow. Incest++. That's a term that I had hoped would never be invented.

    7. Re:So what? by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Sperm doesn't have pairs of chromesomes, it has only one. But you're right, if you make sperm from female stem cells it could only have an X chromesome, never a Y chromesome, so you'd only get female offspring.

      The only inherent loss of genetic diversity would be the Y chromesome, which doesn't have much genetic information on it anyway. The wiki page on the Y chromesome points out that "the human Y chromosome itself contains only 78 working genes, compared to close to 1500 working genes on the X chromosome" and none of the 78 are "vital." For women anyway for obvious reasons.

      As long as the female that the sperm are derived from isn't closely related to the female that produces the egg, it wouldn't seem like there would be diversity loss.

    8. Re:So what? by bitt3n · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I wasn't sure where you were going until the end there. That would be entertaining. How long before we'd see the first attempts at defining a person as the result of a straight man's sperm fertilizing a straight female's egg in a marriage. Probably called "Defense of humanity" act.

      except gay people can have straight kids, so you'd actually want to somehow ask the sperm (nicely) whether he was gay. Then if he says yes, you'll need to freeze him until scientists develop a cure (for homosexuality or religion, take your pick)

      --
      how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
    9. Re:So what? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why would you pay to manufacture slave babies when you could just let the poor do it for you? They've been doing a fine job, even against their own economic interests, for centuries now.

  3. Where's the story? by bugg · · Score: 3, Informative

    Where's the BBC story that's mentioned? I think the editors left a link out.

    --
    -bugg
    1. Re:Where's the story? by Vectronic · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8138963.stm

  4. Mandatory... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I for one, welcome our female overlords. I hope they find me useful and will not use me for food.

    1. Re:Mandatory... by Nadaka · · Score: 4, Funny

      speak for yourself, I don't mind if I she swallows.

  5. Misread by StDoodle · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is it any surprise that, with such an article, I had to do a double-take to properly read "...inferior levels of maturation."

  6. It's about time... by Tenek · · Score: 5, Funny

    Finally, this will address the critical shortage of sperm we face today.

  7. Re:I can't believe it's not butter! by alexborges · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If it has the DNA, its human.

    Thats the ONLY THING that ENCODES humanity....

    Food for thought, thats all Im saying.

    --
    NO SIG
  8. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Spend some time around some militant feminists. Yes, yes you do.

  9. This story is just too hard to swallow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I couldn't resist.

  10. Re:Sperm Shortage? by f8l_0e · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Consider a man a wife. The husband is infertile for reasons other than motility. They could now have a child with sperm produced from his stem cells.

  11. Re:Wow science is amazing by Manfre · · Score: 4, Funny

    One step closer to not having hormonally imbalanced pregnant women...

    My wife and I really wish the human reproductive cycle involved external incubation. I'd create a device to post to twitter whenever the baby kicks.
     

  12. What's the problem? by Anonymusing · · Score: 4, Funny

    "the procedure is ethically questionable and that the gametes produced are of inferior levels of maturation"

    So... they're suitable for producing politicians, lawyers, and bad Slashdot comments?

    --
    Liberal? Conservative? Compare perspectives at Left-Right
  13. Ok, let me be the first to say this... by RelliK · · Score: 4, Funny

    Every sperm is sacred.

    --
    ___
    If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
  14. Re:I can't believe it's not butter! by blueg3 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It actually turns out that's not true -- if you had nothing but the DNA sequence, you could not (even in theory) construct a human from it. For one, the mitochondria organelles have their own genetics independent of our own. The organelles are inherited directly from the mother's cells. For another, how DNA is used and rendered into proteins, etc. is altered by chemicals that are carried along with the cell. If those are stripped away, information is lost.

  15. Blood==Stem Cells==Babies????? by MarkvW · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If a woman gets your blood, then she can bear your children? Wow! This will be a great argument for deadbeat dads! Now they can truthfully say "I never had sexual relations with that woman."

    Black markets for the blood of rich men . . .
    Personal IP rights in your personal blood composition . . .

    Wow, the world got more interesting on 7/08/2009!!!!

  16. Re:Well... by schon · · Score: 4, Funny

    A man and a woman get into an elevator and press the button for the top floor. Halfway up, the elevator stops. The man picks up the emergency phone, and is told that they'll be stuck for at least an hour.

    The woman looks at him slyly and says "want to make me feel like a woman?"

    "Sure", the man says, immediately taking off his shirt.

    "Iron this for me!"

  17. One implication by Arthur+B. · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Interestingly, this opens the door to biological children from homosexuals couple. Sure it's been foreseen for a long time, still big big can of worm.

    --
    \u262D = \u5350
    1. Re:One implication by thesandtiger · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How is it any more a "big can of worm" than infertile hetero couples having children? Are you suggesting that there is some kind of ethical or moral problem with homosexuals having children with this tech that would not apply to heterosexual couples?

      --
      Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
    2. Re:One implication by thesandtiger · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Infertile heterosexual couples can't currently conceive children. This could grant that ability. That's huge. So how is the sexual orientation of the couple relevant?

      If the OP had said "This will allow people who couldn't have conceived the ability to have children, this opens up a can of worms" then sure - but he (and you) specifically mention the sexual orientation of the couples as being relevant. I'm just trying to understand why.

      Is it because gay people would be able to have children that share the dna from 2 same-sex parents? Is it because gay people having kids is an ethical concern? Is it squeamishness about gay folks being able to have children?

      --
      Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
  18. Re:Well... by mangu · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think we're safe for a while, until they manage to train the apes properly.

    What do you mean? I think we are pretty well trained right now!

  19. Bad news for JAV actors by McGregorMortis · · Score: 3, Funny

    This will revolutionize the Japanese Adult Video industry! They won't need to hire 50 guys to make a bukkake video.

  20. One upped by psychicninja · · Score: 5, Funny
    Man, this kind of beats the story I was just about to submit:

    Human Sperm Produced In The Lavatory

  21. Huge waste of tax dollars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We give these scientists grant money to build labs to work on scientific discoveries. And they turn around and spend all day masturbating in the labs!

  22. come on, people... by RelliK · · Score: 3, Funny

    Every sperm is great.

    --
    ___
    If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
    1. Re:come on, people... by FlatWhatson · · Score: 3, Funny

      If a sperm is lab-created,
      God gets quite irate!

      --
      BLAM!
  23. Re:Moral issues? by Hurricane78 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, actually "natural" means "millions if not billions of years of testing in the field, resulting in an unbeatable guaranteed fitness". Of course you could have luck and come up with something better. But it is highly unlikely. And you most likely would forget all kinds of little cycles in nature that are needed to keep things working in the long term.

    Wait for the second, third or fourth generation showing all kinds of problems, up to being unable to create the next generation at all.

    It's way more complicated than you can imagine. We got the tools, but we do not have the brains to use them properly. That is my standpoint. :)

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.