To produce a baby, an egg from the mother and sperm from the father are needed. This has been the norm for millions of years. But the United Kingdom's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFSA) announced that advances in In-vitro gamete (IVG) technology are now ready to produce laboratory-made human eggs and sperm.
Through IVG, eggs and sperm can be produced from the same individual or a combination of up to four different individuals who provide only the desired DNA information. This technology will soon enable individuals who have difficulty having children due to gender, age and health factors.
To produce eggs and sperm using the IVG technique in the laboratory, individuals only need to donate any cells from their body. This technique has only been successfully performed on laboratory mice at this time with mouse offspring produced by combining the DNA of two male mice and one female mouse.
This is not the first time that scientists have succeeded in producing babies from the combination of more than two parents. In 2023, the Mitochondrial Donation Treatment (MDT) technique will produce babies from the combination of DNA of three individuals. The mother's egg DNA is edited to remove the gene that causes miscarriage, with the replacement gene donated by a third person.
The UK is one of the countries struggling with the world's low birth rate. Allowing older or same-sex couples to have their own children through IVG is one solution being considered by scientists.