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Controversial Company Offers a New Way To Make a Baby (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: A controversial fertility company called OvaScience is preoccupied by an enduring mystery in human biology--why eggs fail--and the palpable hope that we can do something about it. The company offers a new treatment, called AUGMENT, based on what it considers to be egg precursor cells found in a woman's ovaries. AUGMENT, which costs UP TO $25,000, along with thousands more in clinic fees and roughly $25,000 for the IVF cycle that must accompany it, relies on mitochondria from putative egg precursor cells to boost the success of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Seventeen babies have been born so far. The company, which has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars from investors, is poised to introduce a second treatment. But many scientists doubt that egg precursor cells actually exist.
take people who can't produce viable reproductive cells, and help them pass on their genes. What could possibly go wrong?
It's disputed that it works, but 17 babies have been created by this procedure so far. So, does it work or doesn't it?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The real question is though, will those 17 be Jedi?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I never asked for this.
Or, you know, you could spend that money helping out children who already exist and who could really use some support. Why do humans feel the need to 'own' everything, even other life forms that have free will of their own?
I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
I don't see the logic behind rewarding irresponsible people when they irresponsibly have children and expecting the kids to somehow turn out responsible. If someone is temporarily poor that's one thing. But if you are a single mom without a job and no prospect of ever having work or a husband the right thing to do if you can't afford the child is to give it up for adoption so it can be raised by responsible people. That way nobody has kids they can't afford just to get a bigger check and those that are infertile but responsible can easily get kids.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
these wealthy people don't just adopt.
Anybody willing to spend that much to have a baby probably shouldn't be having babies.
The perfect scam, we take your egg, perform some woogie that you can't see or verify, but trust us, it works.
Just think of all the couples that DON'T want a pregnancy and go through a lot of effort to have sex WITHOUT getting pregnant and then occasionally one swimmer breaks through and fertilizes the egg anyway. It's like some people are ultra fertile while some people, for whatever reason, just are not fertile.
I know this enters in to the field of Eugenics, but is it good for the species as a whole to artificially create an embryo where the eggs and/or sperm are pre-disposed to non-fertility? Isn't non-viability just nature's way of excluding non-fertility traits from the gene pool?
The mystery of the powerful and mysterious race of Precursors has finally been resolved.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
The old fashioned way seems to be maintaining the world population rates thus far.
What's the cost?
As someone whose family benefited from IVF coverage, and chose to live in a state that mandated its coverage, I'm perhaps a hypocrite. But I admit I wondered about the ethics of raising everyone's insurance base by paying for something that wasn't a health necessity. The fair thing would be to either also offer insurance payment for adoption, or leave these procedures to be paid for by themselves.
I'm pretty sure this is how get Khan. The badass one from the original series.
"I don't which is worse, that everyone has a price, or that the price is always so low"--Hobbes
It certainly doesn't cost that much for IVF in Canada. Seriously you guys, fix your health care already.
Hitler was very much pro-Muslim. He met Sheikh Haj Amin al-Husseini and promised him support for an opposition to the creation of Israel. In return, al-Husseini helped him recruit Bosnian Muslims to join the Waffen-SS, and they were among the Nazi troops who persecuted Jews and Serbs within Yugoslavia.
We have too many humans on this planet already, we don't need more ways to make more humans! You want to raise a child? Go adopt one, there are plenty of children out there without families to take care of them, and you'll be doing human civilization in general several favors in the process, not the least of which is ensuring that one or more human children have a better chance of growing up to be well-adjusted and successful members of society, instead of being all screwed up because they bounced back and forth between foster homes.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Isn't that going to be the immediate response of the anti-choice crowd?
That's like saying he was pro-Russian. He was a psychopath. He would use anyone to further his objective. Then when they were not useful anymore and not in his plan - they'd be killed just like he turned on the Russians.
The enemy of your enemy may still be your enemy as well. Use your brain. Don't get lazy. If you don't, it can often get you killed.
Just use the good old traditional way. Have sex up to 3 times a day, repeat until she's pregnant.
It's a lot of work, I know.
if you can afford the procedure, you're probably better able to afford to raise the child.