Sperm cells have been created from a female human embryo in a remarkable breakthrough that suggests it may be possible for lesbian couples to have their own biological children.British scientists who had already coaxed male bone marrow cells to develop into primitive sperm cells have now repeated the feat with female embryonic stem cells.

The University of Newcastle team that has achieved the feat is now applying for permission to turn the bone marrow of a woman into sperm which, if successful, would make the method more practical than with embryonic cells.

It raises the possibility of lesbian couples one day having children who share both their genes as sperm created from the bone marrow of one woman could be used to fertilise an egg from her partner.

The new rules would mean that civil partners will automatically become the legal parents of the child, even if the child is conceived ‘informally’ ie: not through a clinic.
DIY sperm donation will still be legal but under the proposed laws the non-birth mother not in a civil partnership could not be on the birth certificate.

Men and women differ because of what are called sex chromosomes. Both have an X chromosome. But only men possess a Y chromosome that carries several genes thought to be essential to make sperm, so there has been scepticism that female stem cells could ever be used to make sperm.

The next step is to make these primitive sperm undergo meiosis, so they have the right amount of genetic material for fertilisation.

However, not all scientists agree that the creation of viable offspring from same-sex sperm and eggs will be possible. The government may reintroduce a clause that would allow the use of eggs and sperm created from stem cells.

“The presence of two X chromosomes is incompatible with this,” Dr Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem cell expert at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, told the Daily Telegraph.

“Moreover they need genes from the Y chromosome to go through meiosis (DNA replication followed by two rounds of division). So they are at least double-damned.”

The Bill already allows for two same-sex partners to become the legal parents of a child created through donated eggs, sperm or embryos.At the moment if a lesbian couple have a baby, one partner has to formally adopt the child in order to be a parent, even if the child is conceived through a fertility clinic.

Sources: Pinknews, Telegraph

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