Synthetic embryos create an ethical catch-22
The writer is a science commentator
Egg plus sperm equals embryo. It is hard to think of a more basic rule in biology. Still, rethink it we must. Last week, at a stem cell conference in Massachusetts, researchers revealed they had created “synthetic” human embryos using neither eggs nor sperm. These structures, more correctly called embryo models, were instead grown from single living stem cells, which were derived from a real human embryo. It was not a one-off achievement: another team created an embryo model with a heartbeat.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Anjana Ahuja
