Unlimited Human Eggs?

Recent research has shown that stem cells in adult women can spontaneously create new egg cells in the lab. This discovery uproots the long-held notion that girls are born solely with a finite amount of egg cells at birth and brings up very pertinent ethical issues.

The study, which was published online yesterday by Nature Medicine, involved living human ovarian tissue grafted inside mice. Yes, and according to lead researcher Jonathan Tilly, the main goal was to prove that oocyte (immature egg)-producing stem cells exist in the ovaries of women during reproductive life.

The implications of this study suggest that it may one day be possible to create a virtually "unlimited" supply of human eggs for fertility treatment, an extremely promising prospective. As of now, the cells are unsuitable for any clinical use, yet, questions in the ethical use of "unlimited" eggs arise.

First, critics may say the mice grafting is problematic. I think that it is fine that the study involved human cells grafted into another organism - the mice. Animal studies have long been used in medicine to evaluate treatments and as long as the use of human cells in other life is closely monitored, their use may be appropriate in the pursuit of medical knowledge. This study was obviously reviewed pre-execution and pre-publication.

Second, I think that the prospect of "unlimited" human eggs is promising. Critics may say that we are wrong to choose one egg to live among the potential lives of many. And indeed, through genetic engineering scientists are choosing the best prospective egg via gene screening (meaning the other eggs will not grow into babies) This is fine. We are simply choosing a genotype that will become the one child that develops. By doing so, the mother is not taking away human life - in fact, she is merely choosing the genes of her still very precious child. Consider this thought experiment - is a reproductive female committing murder by not getting pregnant every year? No.

Although the immediate use of the egg cells in the present study will be used solely for research right now (e.g. testing effectiveness of drugs), I believe that their future implications for fertility therapy are highly positive and promising.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17152413
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/27/health/research/scientists-use-stem-cells-to-generate-human-eggs.html?ref=health