Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Creating a sperm or egg from any cell?

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 102 posts

Re: Creating a sperm or egg from any cell?

#71

Post by MisterBastahrd »

gnicholas wrote: post #4

> People could even potentially steal the DNA of celebrities from, for example, a clipping of their hair to make babies, he says. "One law we definitely need is to make sure people can't become genetic parents without their knowledge or consent," says Greely. A new type of blackmail: (1) get some trace DNA from a rich person, (2) use it to create a baby, and (3) threaten to harm that baby if the rich person does not…

Nobody is going to care.

The larger problem is what happens if someone gets a significant piece of DNA from a celebrity and then decides to mass market this to many different people. There's currently a huge scandal such as this one:

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/du....

going on with the sperm donor industry because some individuals have donated under various aliases. The people who were conceived from those donations are now at risk of potentially getting involved in sexual relationships with their biological siblings without having any knowledge of it.

Re: Creating a sperm or egg from any cell?

#73

Post by DonsDiscountGas »

Pigalowda wrote: post #67

A few years ago i wrote up some questions related to this. Cool it’s on NPR now Question: Can an adult somatic cell be de-differentiated into an induced pluripotent stem cell and then re-differentiated into a working/healthy germ cell. Can this germ cell undergo meiosis and produce spermatocytes and oocytes? Can one of these induced gametes fertilize another induced gamete and produce viable offspring. Can this syste…

The short answer to all of these questions is "Yes". Already in mice, and there's no reason to think it wouldn't be possible in humans someday. Although I think it's a ways out; we can induce pluripotent stem cells and do some differentiation into other cell types but I don't believe we're at fully functional germ cells in humans.

Re: Creating a sperm or egg from any cell?

#74

Post by DonsDiscountGas »

batch12 wrote: post #62

A lot of discussion around theft or blackmail so I'll go another way. People could more easily stud themselves out. Imagine if 15% of the babies of 2036 were related to the sexiest social media model. Talk about designer babies. You'd begin to be able to tell when someone was born and how rich their family is by who they (do or don't) resemble. People could sling their own genes on online marketplaces where consumers…

True, although if we actually can design babies the need for a "stud" drops a lot. Two people (or one person I guess) wants a kid, so they start from their DNA, and modify it as they please.

Re: Creating a sperm or egg from any cell?

#75

Post by elric »

laratied wrote: post #66
solatic wrote: post #14

> "One law we definitely need is to make sure people can't become genetic parents without their knowledge or consent," says Greely. Exactly when and how is consent given? Going down this ethical train of thought, one could argue that sexual intercourse only implies consent for sexual intercourse, not consent for reproduction. If the requirement for consent implies a requirement for a written contract, then consent fo…

[flagged]

It seems like a reasonable statement to me. Can you elaborate on why it's so ridiculous in your eyes?

Re: Creating a sperm or egg from any cell?

#77

Post by mynameisvlad »

lelanthran wrote: post #64
sjducb wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sex is not separate from reproduction. If you are a man and have sex with a woman then you're consenting to be a father. Most western countries recognize verbal and other non-written contracts. The clearest example I can see here is the UK's law about weather the genetic father is the legal father. If the child was conceived through sexual intercourse then the genetic father is always the legal father.

> If you are a man and have sex with a woman then you're consenting to be a father. That sounds primitive and regressive. "If you're a women who has sex, you're consenting to be a mother".

If you consent to the sex, you consent to the aftermath of the sex too. Which in straight intercourse could result in pregnancy.

That’s the point, not whatever you were trying to read out of it.

Re: Creating a sperm or egg from any cell?

#78

Post by b1ue64 »

laratied wrote: post #66
solatic wrote: post #14

> "One law we definitely need is to make sure people can't become genetic parents without their knowledge or consent," says Greely. Exactly when and how is consent given? Going down this ethical train of thought, one could argue that sexual intercourse only implies consent for sexual intercourse, not consent for reproduction. If the requirement for consent implies a requirement for a written contract, then consent fo…

[flagged]

Why is it so ridiculous? There is sexual activity that doesn't result in reproduction (massive shocker, i know)

Re: Creating a sperm or egg from any cell?

#79

Post by mynameisvlad »

XorNot wrote: post #63
sjducb wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sex is not separate from reproduction. If you are a man and have sex with a woman then you're consenting to be a father. Most western countries recognize verbal and other non-written contracts. The clearest example I can see here is the UK's law about weather the genetic father is the legal father. If the child was conceived through sexual intercourse then the genetic father is always the legal father.

This is confusing the practical realities of today with ideal law. The burden of carrying or terminating a pregnancy, bodily and fiscally rests solely on the woman in any scenario. The law can't meaningfully distinguish, or even collect solid evidence, of "consent for reproduction" nor can it handle third party equipment failure (or reasonably prove it was not due to misuse either way). If a man has sex with a woman…

Are we pretending things like vasectomies aren’t a thing? The success rate is generally in the upper-90% so sure it could fail but for the vast majority of people, that is equivalent to “disabling sperm production entirely”

The laws also, as have been mentioned already elsewhere in this post, do include such a consent clause. So it’s not really theory either.

Re: Creating a sperm or egg from any cell?

#80

Post by samtho »

laratied wrote: post #66
solatic wrote: post #14

> "One law we definitely need is to make sure people can't become genetic parents without their knowledge or consent," says Greely. Exactly when and how is consent given? Going down this ethical train of thought, one could argue that sexual intercourse only implies consent for sexual intercourse, not consent for reproduction. If the requirement for consent implies a requirement for a written contract, then consent fo…

[flagged]

> What planet are we on.

A planet where many people (but perhaps not enough) can access to very safe and effective birth control in a way where both people in the partnership have some control over their ability to conceive a child.

Post reply on HN