Louise Brown is the first person who was conceived in a petri dish. Leon Kass, who is a prominent biologist, wrote an article about the test tube baby shortly after her birth. He called this revolutionary. However, many people were not excited about the test tube baby. Many people called it a threat to human existence. The American Medical Association did not want to do any more research.
However, research for IVF did not cease. In fact, millions of babies have been conceived through IVF. Most of them have grown up healthy. Louise is one of them. She is 40-years-old now. She lives in England and is married with two children.
Scientists are now developing something that may make IVF null and void. They are trying to see if cells taken from another part of the body can be grown into egg and sperm cells. The lab-made eggs can be combined with sperm and then placed in the uterus. This can make it possible for people who do not have any eggs or sperm to become parents.
This also makes it possible for people to have new types of families. In some cases, a child may only have one biological parent. A same-sex couple may have a child who is related to both of them. A Japanese researcher discovered the possibility of growing egg and sperm cells back in 2006.
Shinya Yamanaka took adult cells from mice and turned them into stem cells. He found that stem cells could develop into any type of cell. Embryos are made up of stem cells.
Katsuhiko Hayashi, who is a researcher who worked with Shinya, stated that it will be a long time before people can have children with stem cells. It will take at least five years before the stem cells can be grown into human cells. It will also have to be tested for 10 to 20 years.
