Strange new world

Artificial sperm have been used to create living animals for the first time, in an experiment that promises to pave the way for a new era of fertility treatment.

Other experiments have suggested that artificial eggs can be made in the same way, though no offspring have yet been born.

In the longer term, it may even prove possible to produce sperm from female stem cells, and eggs from male ones, allowing homosexual couples to have children that bear the genes of both parents.

This would also enable a single man or woman to provide both the sperm and eggs needed to create an embryo, so that a person could essentially mate with himself or herself.

Posted by David on July 10, 2006 1:10 PM