Artificial Embryos: A New Way Of Life

The potential of embryonic stem cells to enhance human life has never been in question, but ethical issues have always plagued the field. The stem cells have to be extracted from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst which forms around 4-5 days after fertilization. The first nueron develops after around 14 days, which is the first sign of life in an embryo. Dealing with them beyond this point is not allowed legally.

But in a groundbreaking development in this field scientists have been able to develop embryos using only stem cells, that too bypassing the crucial stage of fertilisation. A team of scientists developed a mouse embryo using only stem cells and observed its growth for around 13 days, which is way longer than ever before. They believed that it is not too far fetched to think that we could be studying human embryos and their development on an unprecedented level. Early rmbryonic stage is that time of pregnancy when most defects occur, We could now understand the cause of these defects and produce ailments for them. We can also understand why the process of foetus formation fails sometimes.

These embryos could open an avenue where several life threatening diseases could be cured with minimum of fuss. But before that there are questions that need adressing. To put it bluntly, this research involves growing humans in laboratory, and it is fair that questions be asked, but in the end nothing should hinder a research that could potentially save millions of lives.