Unlimited human eggs 'potential' for fertility treatment

Unlimited human eggs 'potential' for fertility treatment

www.bbc.co.uk

Researchers have shown it is possible to find stem cells in adult women which spontaneously produced new eggs in the laboratory.

Further experiments on mice showed such eggs could be fertilised, according to a study in the journal Nature Medicine.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Although we already had an 'unlimited' supply of human ova inside women, these artificially engineered (or engineered in an artificial environment) 'eggs' are coveted for fertilization and implantation for infertile couples.

I find this un-nerving for some reason. Why is it even needed/wanted?

How does any couple receiving fertility treatment really know what the heck they are implanting in them?

I know couples who have had the treatment but creating eggs outside the ovaries feels funny. I know fertilization is done in labs but it seems they are taking more away from the natural reproductive process, where do we draw the line?

How far from natural conception can we accept?

What about after conception?

How far will artificial reproduction go?

Just wondering, anyone else bothered by this?

www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Since fish eggs taste like fish...


do...

nvm.

A Brave New World, here we come

reply to post by Threegirls

How far from natural conception can we accept?

This far for sure.

And I believe that with some time to get used to the idea, we (meaning humanity) would accept even genetically engineered babies growing in artificial wombs. As long as its reasonably safe and practical, people will readily give up on nature if a more convenient alternative is found.

reply to post by Threegirls


Well you can take into count all those science fiction movies and figure out what humans are going to end up doing.

I always said that we humans will be the ones destroying our own species, because in our arrogance we humans tend to believe that we are "special" and backing that up with a "God given right" we tend to challenge nature.

But we have not learn the lessons yet, nature will always win regardless.

What nature does with a pesky virus? it create a natural way to dealt with and a super virus is born.

Playing with natural order of things will kill us all at the end to make room for a better species and it will be created in nature on in a lab.

I can't help but thing "you can't always get what you want, but if you try, you get what you need"

Some things are not meant to be, but we can find happiness in other things. without the need of playing mad scientist.

reply to post by Maslo


I think you are right.

Seeing how many of our ladies are so utterly dependant on medical staff for labour care rather than trusting their bodies and a good Midwife, I would not be surprised if more women chose to give up the experience of pregnancy in the future too. I wonder how far from this future step they actually are.

How much of our unique power as women will we give up? Will we even have a choice in the future? I am thinking along the lines of 'Demolition man' where even sex is prohibited

Being an advocate for normal birth when it is possible, I find that saddening.

reply to post by marg6043


Yes, nature is a far more powerful force than we feeble humans. We're screwed if we don't start thinking and behaving responsibly.

History is indeed a powerful portent and movies are indications of how we see our future..or some do.

While millions of babies are born, unwanted..or aborted outright, why are radical means for artificial means to have a child even necessary? We don't have a shortage of fertility. Oh if only that were true...

Column A full of Mothers who don't want their kids need to meet up with Column B of Couples who would give anything to have just one shot at raising a healthy child to see what can be worked out.

There is a need...and there is a solution. If only they could mesh and solve the problem at least that far. It wouldn't even require playing God in a White Coat.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Indeed. unfortunately these days people would like to have their own offspring with options over characteristics and traits.

We are moving towards a society in which choice trumps nature. If we are given an option to control more aspects of reproduction it will become normal.

unlimited eggs could lead to many being manipulated, see which lead to more successful implantation and development. The potential for full on eugenics and total control are immense and worrying.

Without relying on many women acting as donors for genetic research using ovum, the field is less hindered by issues of consent.

reply to post by Threegirls

I guess you're sure right on that. These days people do seem to be pushing hard for the point where they can basically order a baby like something from a catalog and special order at that.

This is sickening
The last thing we need is more people on this Earth.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Considering the fact that people are willing to spend thousands going through painful procedures to modify their own bodies, I can honestly see some people saying stuff like "make sure baby gets my nose not daddies and his height because surgery to 'correct' shortness takes too long"!!!

Cosmetic surgery is a normal and booming industry these days, how far are social attitudes from choosing to manipulate offspring to avoid what are seen as defects in themselves?

Genetic manipulation may honestly be seen as a cost affective alternative to cosmetic surgery, whether the child would see it that way or not is another thing.

Am I reading too much into this whole thing? Would unlimited ovum really lead to further intensive research/manipulation?

Originally posted by RealSpoke
A Brave New World, here we come

Exactly what I thought... maybe it's because I re-read it last week...

Brave New World

Chapter 1
Summary: Chapter 1

The novel opens in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. The year is a.f. 632 (632 years “after Ford”). The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning is giving a group of students a tour of a factory that produces human beings and conditions them for their predestined roles in the World State. He explains to the boys that human beings no longer produce living offspring. Instead, surgically removed ovaries produce ova that are fertilized in artificial receptacles and incubated in specially designed bottles.

The Hatchery destines each fetus for a particular caste in the World State. The five castes are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon undergo the Bokanovsky Process, which involves shocking an egg so that it divides to form up to ninety-six identical embryos, which then develop into ninety-six identical human beings. The Alpha and Beta embryos never undergo this dividing process, which can weaken the embryos. The Director explains that the Bokanovsky Process facilitates social stability because the clones it produces are predestined to perform identical tasks at identical machines. The cloning process is one of the tools the World State uses to implement its guiding motto: “Community, Identity, Stability.”

The Director goes on to describe Podsnap’s Technique, which speeds up the ripening process of eggs within a single ovary. With this method, hundreds of related individuals can be produced from the ova and sperm of the same man and woman within two years. The average production rate using Podsnap’s Technique is 11,000 brothers and sisters in 150 batches of identical twins. Called over by the Director, Mr. Henry Foster, an employee at the plant, tells the attentive students that the record for this particular factory is over 16,000 siblings.

i think i have an idea of where this is going...grow lots of babies artificially and harvest them for stem cells. cure all the world's health issues, but at what price?

society is already willing to kill children for convenience, this will just be the next logical step.

Take it to the source, to God, pray to have a child. Invitro Fertilization is against God. Where is the unitive act God planned between two married
people?

Pray and if God wants you to have a child, you will.

Originally posted by truthinfact
Since fish eggs taste like fish...


do...

nvm.

They can be converted into sperm or eggs.

Well you could inject genes into the egg and then fertilize the cloned egg with the cloned sperm.

creating genetically engineered clones...

Having now watched 'A Brave New World' on youtube, the 80's version and the 1998 version, I feel sick.

The potential of having unlimited human ovum for scientific use is a dangerous road to be on.

After watching the films and some further research it is clear that the majority of people can be conditioned to accept whatever is desired by those in power.

My child is off school ill today and I endured an hour of kids TV. Numberjacks has a 'brain gain' machine. There are spies around who pinpoint wrong thought processes in the population. They then beam the right or required thought process directly into the brains of the population. The episode I saw used the machine to stop people from recounting things once they move, such as sheep (their example).

Link to numberjacks webpage

There are vids on youtube too. I'm not sure whether to call it a weird perversion of collective consciousness or blatant mind control using a machine.

I think conditioned/mind controlled clones are not that far fetched to be quite honest. Normal humanity could not possibly want this so who the heck does? It's horrific.

Maybe I am off base, these films, 'programmes' and such are so blatant, maybe the point is to wake us up to where we are headed. I will be talking to people about this in the 'real world'.

Any positives to this potential?

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz
i think i have an idea of where this is going...grow lots of babies artificially

You may be right...

sovereignindependent.co.uk...

In remarks that critics have said are disturbingly reminiscent of Aldous Huxley’s famous dystopian novel “Brave New World,” a UK ethicist has argued that since pregnancy causes “natural inequality” between the sexes, women must be liberated from the “burdens and risks of pregnancy” through the use of “ectogenesis”, or artificial wombs.