MPs back artificial sperm for childless

March 10, 2008

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 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. (Guardian)