Mice produced from artificial eggs

[Catherine]

I won't try to explain the technicalities. The article does that better than I could. They have created artificial mouse eggs, fertilized them and then implanted them in a female so she could give birth to them.

http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...t=2&at=dt0

The first thought is always, why do we need more mice? Then there is the ethics of using animals for research. This kind of research is going to take a lot of mice.

There is also a bigger picture here. Scientists are doing some very serious work in the area of reproductive technology.
Some of it is ethical and some is questionable. Some is beneficial and some is questionable.

This has potential for good and bad. If they are doing it in mice they will want to do it in humans. That is the whole point of the research. After all, mice don't need help to produce more mice. Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should do it.
Also if we can do something like eliminate genetic illnesses how can we justify letting children be born with things we could have prevented.
I don't think our laws or even our ethics can keep up with the pace of scientific research. What do you think?
I have barely begun to think it through.

[LPC]

You raise some very important points, Catherine. I suspect, but obviously can't prove, that behind all this there is the problem of rapidly falling male fertility:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scienc...82449.html

The causes of this are not proven definitively, but the widespread use of BPAs is often regarded as one important cause. BPAs were even used in supermarket receipts until a few years ago in many countries, meaning people could touch the receipts and then eat a snack.

This artificial egg creation is clearly a "just in case needed" scenario for humankind. If sperm counts fall to critical or below, then artificial eggs inserted into a female would be the only answer to prevent humans becoming extinct. But one thing seems clear: if human reproduction is becoming more difficult, it is our own fault (for polluting the environment) - and not that of poor mice.

[Tobi]

The reason the scientists did this is not because they care two hoots about mice, but were using them as some sort of 'ground-breaking research' and an experiment.

If humans are in danger of becoming extinct -(fat chance actually as the population continues to explode world-wide!) then it has to be as a result of something we are creating, as we have such a massive impact on the eco-systems of this planet. Far more than any other species.
However as LPC mentioned, our environmental toxins, and hormone mimics can lower sperm count and also fertility in females. Stress can also do that, and I see people leading increasingly stressed lives just to make ends meet.

Poor mice.

I agree with you Catherine. I also wonder if our ethics can keep up with our scientific discoveries.

[Catherine]

I was unaware of falling male fertility. I knew that couples were having trouble conceiving. It is something that we are doing to ourselves. It can even be something that happened during the mother's pregnancy that affects the fertility of the son.

There is definitely a real push to find ways to help people reproduce. The recent "three parent" child is part of that. I secretly think humans are a very endangered species. We have done so many things that are causing illnesses and now our fertility is declining. We could see a real drop in human numbers at some point. I wonder if it is nature's way of protecting the planet from us. We have become a problem for the whole planet.

We are putting a lot of money into finding ways of producing children. It would be better to find out what we are doing wrong that we can't produce children naturally.

I don't know what the children of such technology will be like. Mice are not going to much help in that area.

It is a mistake for a species to become dependent on reproductive technology. It might be a wrong use of medical/research  resources. The money would be better spent on health issues, in particular environmental health issues.

[Tobi]

I think we have over-populated. Because of that, situations have arisen where there are more dangers as a result of what we create for so many humans.
It stands to reason that there is cause and effect. The effect is probably a sensible one, but very hard for people. To find it harder to reproduce. I don't think it's "Mother Nature" or "God", I think it is simply an effect of the causes we have created.

I often think of animals, who can easily over-populate, but who come 'into season' much less frequently than humans do.
Humans have on average 6 times more opportunity to reproduce than dogs. And if there was no 'spay and neuter', there would be an incredible amount of dogs.

But of course it is sad too, as many couples desperately desire children, and are infertile.

I never had children. I had a number of miscarriages. My blood group was incompatible, only I didn't know that until I was getting on in years. I accepted that as 'fate' and knew it was for a reason. My desire was not strong for children, but of course I would have loved them very much had they survived.

[Catherine]

I think a lot of couples are going to have to accept that they can't have children of their own.  We do need the human population to lower its numbers. I don't have children either, but I have been there and mothered children in my neighbourhood.  I wanted my own children when I was younger, but now I am glad that things worked out the way they did. There are more than enough opportunities to work with children if you want.

As a species we have not shown common sense about having children. People will have numerous children even if the resources are not there to care for them. People will continue to get pregnant even if it will cause their milk to dry up resulting in the death of the child they are nursing. We are not a species that can safely have back to back pregnancies.

I really wonder if we really need all this reproductive technology. It is a lot of money to benefit a few at a time when many people do not have basic health care. I think the planet would prefer that we accept the rising levels of infertility as a way of helping the planet survive.