A lot of ethics seem 2 b involved over gay parenting .
if i am not wrong ,the screening procedure in india for adoption also ensures that officially no gay can adopt a child(plz correct me if wrong here ).
with both parents working being normal in all marraiges ,should there really be an issue with gay/lez couples adopting children ?Can they give the same upbringhing and luv to a child ?
m still in a questioning mode on this issue -- comments any1 ?
(i am not referring to the indian context of today where the child will b kinda outcast or in cases of seasonal couples )
idont likeit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
idont likeit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Robin Mckie and Anushka Asthana
The breakthroughs in stem-cell technology currently
fall outside existing controls on human fertilisation
science
# Breakthroughs in stem-cell technology could soon
lead to `non-traditional' parents having their own
offspring
# Researchers have found they can make human sperm
cells by treating stem cells with particular chemicals
# The U.K. government has acknowledged there may be
safety and ethical issues involved but not begun to
address them
IT IS a prospect worthy of a science fiction B-movie:
male couples, women past the menopause, infertile
couples and even celibate clergy producing their own
children.
Yet this startling idea is now a serious scientific
prospect, say researchers. Breakthroughs in stem-cell
technology could soon lead to `non-traditional'
parents having their own offspring, not always with
the help of a woman's genes, some scientists saying
within the next four years. The new technology
currently falls outside existing controls on human
fertilisation science.
"As yet the government has failed to address all the
possibilities this technology opens up," said Anna
Smajdor, an ethicist at Imperial College London.
Yet developments are moving so fast it is critical
that a discussion of the full ethical implications of
the technology be launched, she believes.
"There are no existing governmental insights or
guidance as to how ethical issues related to these
areas might be approached. It is something we need to
address."
"You don't have to be infertile to have an interest in
reproductive technology," she said last week. "This
could mean anyone can become a parent; women after the
menopause, gay couples, celibate men."
Revolutionary science
The technique behind this revolutionary science has
been developed over the past two years. "We still have
several years to go before we can use it on humans,"
said Professor Harry Moore, of Sheffield University's
Centre for Stem Cell Biology. Following pioneering
work on mice carried out by American researchers,
teams including Moore's have used embryos donated
by patients undergoing IVF.
"You allow the embryo to develop for a short period in
the laboratory. Then you take out the cells from which
it is composed," he said.
The potential
These cells are known as stem cells and they have the
potential to turn into cells of any type of tissue:
skin, heart, kidney or brain, for example. What
researchers are now doing in laboratories round the
world is developing techniques to turn these stem
cells into specialised cells.
Thus insulin-secreting cells could be created for
diabetics and brain cells for Parkinson's patients.
And at Moore's laboratory researchers have found they
can make human sperm cells by treating stem cells with
particular chemicals. "We are also getting close to
doing that for egg cells," added Moore.
Thus, in future, an infertile man could be treated
using stem-cell technology. Using cloning technology,
scientists could create stem cells, genetically
identical to a patient, and from this can make sperm.
This could then be used to fertilise a partner's egg
to create a child. The technique could also be used to
create eggs for women who have undergone premature
menopause.
"We can make immature sperm and egg cells this way,
but so far have not been able to turn them into mature
sperm and egg," added Moore. "That will require far
more work at least five to 10 years. We have to
demonstrate the technique is safe and this will take
time."
Not every scientist agrees with this timeline,
however. "This is a dramatic idea, but the basic
technology is not new," said Dr Peter Nagy, of the
Eastern Virginia Medical School. "I think we will be
using it within two to four years." But what really
disturbs some observers is the idea of using stem-cell
sperm or eggs to make children for individuals other
than those facing infertility problems.
"It is possible that we could use this technology to
make eggs from stem cells created from a man's skin
cells," said Moore. "Thus technology could help gay
men have babies, though obviously a fertilised egg
created this way would have to be carried to term by a
woman. It would have the genetic make-up of its two
male `parents.'
Safety and ethical issues
This is not what this technology is being developed
for, however. It is being attempted as a way to
alleviate infertility which is still a cause of
considerable unhappiness for many couples."
So far the government has acknowledged there may be
safety and ethical issues involved with stem-cell
sperm and egg technology but not begun to address
them. A spokeswoman for the U.K.'s Human Fertilisation
and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said: "We are aware of
studies conducted in this area.
We employ a process to monitor new developments and
will await further information." She added that the
government agency would strictly regulate anyone
wanting to conduct research, which needed the
derivation of stem-cell lines from embryos.
Galloping speed
Nevertheless, the speed of developments does worry
some campaigners. Josephine Quintavalle, director of
Comment on Reproductive Ethics (Care), said: "The
science is galloping, but in most part we run like mad
and then look back and say we didn't get it right. It
is extraordinary that we create children and then look
back and see if we have done something wrong. Good
science moves slowly."
Quintavalle said she would not support anything that
paved the way for women past the menopause or gay men
to have children.
"Women are not supposed to be reproductive after
menopause and if you need a sperm and egg for a baby
there must be a reason for it. We need to have respect
for nature."
Allan Pacey, an academic at the University of
Sheffield and secretary of the British Fertility
Society, said it would pave the way for people who had
become infertile after childhood cancers to have
offspring.
He said young boys sometimes had their `reproductive
future wiped out' and could not bank sperm at that
age.
This technology would get around such problems. "There
are safety concerns," he admitted. "This is genetic
material and if you create a new life you have to know
it is properly formed and imprinted."
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