Skin cell babies may become dangerous reality
FREE Catholic Classes
Within the next 10-20 years, a new and controversial fertility technology called in vitro gametogenesis could make it possible to manipulate skin cells into creating a human baby.
Tests involving mice aim to prove the possibility.
Highlights
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
12/21/2017 (6 years ago)
Published in Health
Keywords: Baby, Pregnancy, fertile, skin cells, test tube baby
Washington D.C. (CNA/EWTN News) - However, this groundbreaking research has caused push-back from some critics, like Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, who says IVG would turn procreation into a transaction.
"IVG extends the faulty logic of IVF by introducing additional steps to the process of manipulating the origins of the human person, in order to satisfy the desires of customers and consumers," Fr. Pacholczyk told CNA in an email interview.
"The technology also offers the possibility of introducing further fractures into parenthood, distancing children from their parents by multiplying the number of those involved in generating the child, so that 3-parent embryos, or even more parents, may become involved," he continued.
IVG has been successfully tested by Japanese researchers on mice, which produced healthy babies derived from skin cells.
The process begins by taking the skin cells from the mouse's tail and re-programing them to become induced pluripotent stem cells. These manipulated cells are able to grow different kinds of cells, and are then used to grow eggs and sperm, which are then fertilized in the lab. The resulting embryos are then implanted in a womb.Although similar to in vitro fertilization, IVG eliminates the step of needing pre-existing egg and sperm, and instead creates these gametes.
But many experts in the reproductive field are skeptical of its potential outcomes and ethical compromises.
"It gives me an unsettled feeling because we don't know what this could lead to," Paul Knoepfler, a stem cell researcher at the University of California, Davis, told the New York Times.
Knoepfler noted that some of the potential repercussions of IVG could turn into "cloning" or "designer babies." Other dangers could include the "Brad Pitt scenario," in which celebrity's skin cells retrieved from random places, like hotel rooms, could be used to create a baby.
Potentially anyone's skin cells could be used to create a baby, even without their knowledge or consent.
In an issue of Science Translational Medicine earlier this year, a trio of academics - a Harvard Law professor, the dean of Harvard Medical School, and a medical science professor at Brown - wrote that IVG "may raise the specter of 'embryo farming' on a scale currently unimagined, which might exacerbate concerns about the devaluation of human life."
They added that "refining the science of IVG to the point of clinical use will involve the generation and likely destruction of large numbers of embryos from stem cell-derived gametes" and the process "may exacerbate concerns regarding human enhancement."
Fr. Pacholczyk also pointed to further concerns, saying IVG disrupts the uniqueness of every individual's sex cells.
"I.V.G raises additional concerns because of the way it manipulates human sex cells. Our sex cells, or gametes, are special cells. They uniquely identify us," Fr. Pacholczyk stated.
"It is most unfortunate that overwhelming parental desires are being permitted to trump and distort the right order of transmitting human life," he continued.
Fr. Pacholczyk said that processes like IVG "enable a consumerist mentality that holds that children are 'projects' to be realized through commercial transactions and laboratory techniques of gamete manipulation."
The Catholic Church teaches that IVF and similar reproductive technologies are morally illicit for several reasons, including their separation of procreation from the conjugal act and the creation of embryos which are discarded.
Pope Francis recently spoke out against the destruction of human embryos, saying that no good result from research can justify the destruction of embryos.
"Some branches of research use human embryos, inevitably causing their destruction. But we know that no ends, even noble in themselves - such as a predicted utility for science, for other human beings or for society - can justify the destruction of human embryos," the Holy Father said May 18.Although IVG has proven successful in mice, there are still some wrinkles that need to be ironed out before it is tested on humans, and will entail years more of tedious bioengineering.
However, Fr. Pacholczyk hopes that potential parents will come to realize that children should not products that can be ordered or purchased by consumers, and should rather be seen as a gift.
"Turning commercial laboratories to create children on our behalf is an unethical step in the direction of treating our offspring as objects to be planned and created in the pursuit of parental gratification, rather than gifts received from the Lord."
This article was originally published on CNA May 18, 2017.
---
'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'
Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online
Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.
-
Mysteries of the Rosary
-
St. Faustina Kowalska
-
Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
-
Saint of the Day for Wednesday, Oct 4th, 2023
-
Popular Saints
-
St. Francis of Assisi
-
Bible
-
Female / Women Saints
-
7 Morning Prayers you need to get your day started with God
-
Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Daily Catholic
- Daily Readings for Monday, December 02, 2024
- St. Bibiana: Saint of the Day for Monday, December 02, 2024
- The Angelus: Prayer of the Day for Monday, December 02, 2024
- Daily Readings for Sunday, December 01, 2024
- St. Eligius: Saint of the Day for Sunday, December 01, 2024
- Advent Wreath Prayer: Prayer of the Day for Sunday, December 01, 2024
Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.
Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.