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."

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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