MPs back artificial sperm for childless
(sz) MPs are planning a change in the law to allow babies to be conceived from artificial sperm, a move described by opponents as playing God with human DNA.
A furious debate is building over how far to leave the door open to its use in IVF treatment, ahead of a Commons vote due shortly on the government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill. The legislation currently allows …#8239;so-called artificial gametes in research, but imposes a blanket ban on their use in creating a human pregnancy.
The technique involves the creation in a lab of sperm grown from embryonic cells taken from the would-be parent. Although the science is in its infancy, it could ultimately help people rendered infertile by cancer treatment, or fortysomething women who can no longer produce their own eggs, to have children who are genetically related to them.
A cross-party group of MPs led by Liberal Democrat Evan Harris will table an amendment to relax the ban. ‘There is no good explanation for not allowing this option for people who have survived cancer and cannot have children,’ Harris told The Observer. ‘This is a good bill, but the government needs to recognise a few improvements are still needed - such as allowing the use of artificial gametes - before we can say the UK has rational and progressive regulation.’
Dawn Primarolo, the Public Health Minister, confirmed last night that she was considering pleas from MPs and scientists to relax the ban. There was a ‘powerful argument’ that the new technique could help solve a shortage of sperm donors, she said, but she was sympathetic to arguments that a decision should not be rushed.
So far pregnancies have been successfully created only in mice: of seven born alive, all died prematurely. Experts believe it could be 10 years before a human pregnancy could be safely attempted. But scientists have cultured human sperm using stem cells - immature building blocks containing DNA - taken from bone marrow. more…
From: »The Observer«