{"id":25172,"date":"2021-04-23T02:26:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T02:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=25172"},"modified":"2021-04-25T06:45:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T06:45:57","slug":"lab-grown-embryos-and-human-monkey-hybrids-medical-marvels-or-ethical-missteps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/lab-grown-embryos-and-human-monkey-hybrids-medical-marvels-or-ethical-missteps\/","title":{"rendered":"Lab\u2013grown embryos and human\u2013monkey hybrids: Medical marvels or ethical missteps?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sahotra Sarkar<\/a>, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Aldous Huxley\u2019s 1932 novel \u201cBrave New World<\/a>,\u201d people aren\u2019t born from a mother\u2019s womb. Instead, embryos are grown in artificial wombs until they are brought into the world, a process called ectogenesis. In the novel, technicians in charge of the hatcheries manipulate the nutrients they give the fetuses to make the newborns fit the desires of society. Two recent scientific developments suggest that Huxley\u2019s imagined world of functionally manufactured people is no longer far-fetched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 17, 2021, an Israeli team announced that it had grown mouse embryos for 11 days \u2013 about half of the gestation period \u2013 in artificial wombs<\/a> that were essentially bottles. Until this experiment, no one had grown a mammal embryo outside a womb this far into pregnancy. Then, on April 15, 2021, a U.S. and Chinese team announced that it had successfully grown, for the first time, embryos that included both human and monkey cells<\/a> in plates to a stage where organs began to form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As both a philosopher and a biologist<\/a> I cannot help but ask how far researchers should take this work. While creating chimeras \u2013 the name for creatures that are a mix of organisms \u2013 might seem like the more ethically fraught of these two advances, ethicists think the medical benefits far outweigh the ethical risks. However, ectogenesis could have far-reaching impacts on individuals and society, and the prospect of babies grown in a lab has not been put under nearly the same scrutiny as chimeras. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tNb2npuiF3Q?wmode=transparent&start=7 Mouse embryos were grown in an artificial womb for 11 days, and organs had begun to develop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing in an artificial womb<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When in vitro fertilization first emerged in the late 1970s, the press called IVF embryos \u201ctest-tube babies,\u201d though they are nothing of the sort. These embryos are implanted into the uterus within a day or two after doctors fertilize an egg in a petri dish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the Israeli experiment, researchers had not been able to grow mouse embryos outside the womb for more than four days \u2013 providing the embryos with enough oxygen had been too hard. The team spent seven years<\/a> creating a system of slowly spinning glass bottles and controlled atmospheric pressure that simulates the placenta and provides oxygen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This development is a major step toward ectogenesis, and scientists expect that it will be possible to extend mouse development further, possibly to full term outside the womb<\/a>. This will likely require new techniques, but at this point it is a problem of scale \u2013 being able to accommodate a larger fetus. This appears to be a simpler challenge to overcome<\/a> than figuring out something totally new like supporting organ formation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Israeli team plans to deploy its techniques on human embryos<\/a>. Since mice and humans have similar developmental processes, it is likely that the team will succeed in growing human embryos in artificial wombs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To do so, though, members of the team need permission from their ethics board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CRISPR \u2013 a technology that can cut and paste genes \u2013 already allows scientists to manipulate an embryo\u2019s genes after fertilization. Once fetuses can be grown outside the womb, as in Huxley\u2019s world, researchers will also be able to modify their growing environments to further influence what physical and behavioral qualities these parentless babies exhibit<\/a>. Science still has a way to go before fetus development and births outside of a uterus become a reality, but researchers are getting closer. The question now is how far humanity should go down this path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Chimeras evoke images of mythological creatures of multiple species \u2013 like this 15th-century drawing of a griffin \u2013 but the medical reality is much more sober. Martin Schongauer\/WikimediaCommons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Human-monkey hybrids<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Human\u2013monkey hybrids might seem to be a much scarier prospect than babies born from artificial wombs. But in fact, the recent research is more a step toward an important medical development than an ethical minefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If scientists can grow human cells in monkeys or other animals, it should be possible to grow human organs<\/a> too. This would solve the problem of organ shortages<\/a> around the world for people needing transplants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But keeping human cells alive in the embryos of other animals for any length of time has proved to be extremely difficult. In the human-monkey chimera experiment<\/a>, a team of researchers implanted<\/a> 25 human stem cells into embryos of crab-eating macaques \u2013 a type of monkey. The researchers then grew these embryos<\/a> for 20 days in petri dishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 15 days, the human stem cells had disappeared from most of the embryos. But at the end of the 20-day experiment, three embryos still contained human cells that had grown as part of the region of the embryo where they were embedded. For scientists, the challenge now is to figure out how to maintain human cells in chimeric embryos for longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
The ability to grow true test\u2013tube babies raises many ethical questions. Carol Yepes\/Moment via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Regulating these technologies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some ethicists have begun to worry that researchers are rushing into a future<\/a> of chimeras without adequate preparation. Their main concern is the ethical status of chimeras<\/a> that contain human and nonhuman cells \u2013 especially if the human cells integrate into sensitive regions such as a monkey\u2019s brain<\/a>. What rights would such creatures have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there seems to be an emerging consensus that the potential medical benefits justify a step-by-step extension of this research. Many ethicists are urging public discussion<\/a> of appropriate regulation to determine how close to viability these embryos should be grown. One proposed solution is to limit growth of these embryos to the first trimester of pregnancy. Given that researchers don\u2019t plan to grow these embryos beyond the stage when they can harvest rudimentary organs<\/a>, I don\u2019t believe chimeras are ethically problematic compared with the true test\u2013tube babies of Huxley\u2019s world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few ethicists have broached the problems posed by the ability to use ectogenesis to engineer human beings to fit societal desires. Researchers have yet to conduct experiments on human ectogenesis, and for now, scientists lack the techniques to bring the embryos to full term. However, without regulation, I believe researchers are likely to try these techniques on human embryos \u2013 just as the now-infamous He Jiankui used CRISPR to edit human babies<\/a> without properly assessing safety and desirability. Technologically, it is a matter of time before mammal embryos can be brought to term outside the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation\u2019s newsletter to understand the world.<\/em> Sign up today<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While people may be uncomfortable with ectogenesis today, this discomfort could pass into familiarity as happened with IVF. But scientists and regulators would do well to reflect on the wisdom of permitting a process that could allow someone to engineer human beings without parents. As critics have warned<\/a> in the context of CRISPR-based genetic enhancement, pressure to change future generations to meet societal desires will be unavoidable and dangerous, regardless of whether that pressure comes from an authoritative state or cultural expectations. In Huxley\u2019s imagination, hatcheries run by the state grew a large numbers of identical individuals as needed. That would be a very different world from today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sahotra Sarkar<\/a>, Professor of Philosophy and Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sahotra Sarkar, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts In Aldous Huxley\u2019s 1932 novel \u201cBrave New World,\u201d people aren\u2019t born from a mother\u2019s womb. Instead, embryos are grown in artificial wombs until they are brought into the world, a process called ectogenesis. In the novel, technicians in charge of the hatcheries manipulate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":25173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3410],"tags":[9811,9814,312,340,2059,8030,9810,658,9812,9813,4252,5450,404],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25172"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25196,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25172\/revisions\/25196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}