16th December, 2010
Now men may be able to make babies without women, through a technology that could for the first time allow same sex couples to have their own genetic children.
In a technology developed to help in preserving endangered species and improving livestock breeds, scientists have, for the first time, developed an offspring from two males.
In a way, this renders null and void, the arguments by anti-gay activists that only opposite sexes lead to procreation. But not all will be lost to potential mothers as a female will be required to carry the pregnancy to term.
Using cell technology, scientists in the US say it is also possible to develop an offspring from one male, though this will need some time to refine.
A statement from the Society for the Study of Reproduction cites the report posted online last Wednesday in the Journal Biology of Reproduction says the development is a major step in advancing human assisted reproductive technology or test tube babies.
Currently same sex couples depend on adopting children or donated eggs from a female, but this could dramatically change the equation.
The researchers manipulated cells from male mice and produced cells that were implanted into a surrogate female mouse.
The surrogate gave birth to males and females and when these babies grew, they mated with normal mice.
“Their offspring, both male and female, showed genetic contributions from the two fathers,†says the statement.
The technology could be important for beef breeders as it could upgrade or retain high quality genetic strains without investing much in high maintenance females.
Last year, the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute and the University of Nairobi succeeded in breeding Kenya’s first test-tube calf using a technique called In Vitro Embryo Production (Ivep).
When commercialised, farmers can rent their best cows as donors and their lower-quality cows as surrogates.
The Texas team may be hitting back for men. Last year, British researchers discovered a way of making an artificial sperm, which may allow women to make babies without men.
The technology which the Newcastle University researchers said could be perfected by 2015 similarly used stem cells to attain the feat.
The researchers said the development will lead to new ways of assisting couples suffering from infertility so that they can have a child which is genetically theirs.
Kenya’s pioneering doctor in test tube baby technology, Dr. Joshua Noreh was pessimistic that such technologies could become an everyday solution to reproduction.
While this may offer an option, he had told the Nation, it could be difficult to guarantee that babies done from such technologies were 100 per cent healthy or that they will not develop complications later in life.
