TORONTO, June 30 (LifeSiteNews.com) – With scientists just having announced the mapping of the human genome and the accompanying glimpse into a world of designer babies, the New Reproductive Technology boom has gone into overdrive.
On June 17 details of the first cloned human (animal-human) embryo were released. American Cell Technology (ACT), a leading, private biotechnology company, cloned the human embryo in November using a cell from a man’s leg and a cow’s ovum. The human-animal embryo was allowed to live and develop for twelve days before it was killed.
To deal with the booming number of multiple births thanks to fertility drugs and in vitro fertilization, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada released the first-ever voluntary guidelines on how Canadian doctors should manage multiples. In the June 27 document they suggest that all women carrying multiples should be offered “selective reduction” (abortion of one or more of the babies) if testing reveals that one of their children in utero is deemed unfit.
Canadian researchers have transplanted slivers of human ovary tissue into muscles on the back of a mouse, harvested potentially viable eggs from the grafts and matured them in a laboratory so humans can now be the offspring of mice.
And finally scientists have announced that they are developing a drug to delay menopause by more than ten years, which would result in women conceiving in their 50s and 60s.