Should we take eggs from 中止するd babies?

Scientists are ready to plunder the ovaries of 中止するd babies for eggs to use in IVF 治療. 実験s have taken the 過程 almost to 完成, it 現れるd yesterday.

They raise the nightmare prospect of a child whose 生物学の mother has never been born. The news, from a 科学の 会議／協議会 in Madrid, was 迎える／歓迎するd with 普及した revulsion at how far science is 実験（する）ing 倫理的な frontiers.

専門家s 警告するd of appalling emotional and 生物学の problems.

But fertility doctors say the 開発 could 緩和する a 世界的な 不足 of 寄付するd eggs for women who cannot produce their own.

Only last week a British clinic 申し込む／申し出d 削減（する）-price IVF 治療 to women who agreed to 寄付する eggs.

Scientists have known for some time that 女性（の） foetuses develop ovaries after as little as 16 weeks in the womb.

Now 研究員s from イスラエル and the Netherlands have kept ovarian tissue from 中止するd foetuses alive in the 研究室／実験室 for several weeks.

They stopped the 実験 at the point where they believed eggs were about to be produced. 長，指導者 研究員 Dr Tal Biron-Shental said it was 'theoretically possible' that with extra hormone 治療 they could have produced 円熟した eggs suitable for IVF use.

He （人命などを）奪う，主張するd it would be ethically 'almost the same' as 存在するing techniques.

詳細（に述べる）s of the major 研究 programme were 明かすd at the 年次の 会議／協議会 of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Madrid.

違法な

The 過程 would be 違法な in Britain, but 専門家s said there is no way this country can escape the 倫理的な questions. There have been several 最近の 事例／患者s of British couples having fertility 治療 abroad, and the fact that Dutch and Israeli 専門家s are working together shows how the science has been globalised.

The 開発 追加するs yet more serious 関心 about the 倫理学 of modern reproductive 薬／医学.

Only last month the Daily Mail 明らかにする／漏らすd how a couple had given birth to an IVF baby genetically 審査するd to be a perfect tissue match for his sick brother - and かもしれない 供給する him with a cure.

'深く，強烈に uneasy'

Dr Tom Shakespeare, director of the 政策, 倫理学 and Life Sciences 研究 学校／設ける at Newcastle University, said he was '深く，強烈に uneasy' about the idea of using 中止するd foetuses as a source of eggs.

'My personal 見解（をとる） is that it is wrong,' he said. 'Partly because it would 原因（となる） 普及した revulsion and partly because you would have somebody born who is the child of someone who never lived.

'We need to consider the 福利事業 of the child and the 衝撃 of finding out that your mother was 中止するd.'

Macabre

Nuala Scarisbrick, of the anti-abortion 圧力団体 LIFE, branded the 実験s 'macabre'.

She said: 'It is sickening, even by the low 基準s of reproductive 科学（工学）技術. Who would want to know that their mother was an

foetus? To 許す children-to grow up to find out they had been 製造（する）d this way would be grotesque.

'They may 苦しむ enormous psychological 損失.'

Dr Francoise Shenfield, specialist in 医療の 倫理学 and infertility at University College, London, said she was 'very troubled' by the new technique. 'Society is not ready for this,' she said.

専門家s also pointed to the 可能性 of passing on defects in eggs taken from foetuses 中止するd for genetic malformations. They said that by the time a girl reaches puberty her egg reserves have fallen 自然に from around seven million to 250,000, かもしれない because nature has weeded out '欠陥のある' eggs.

But the scientists developing the new technique 主張するd that the 世界的な 不足 of 寄贈者 eggs made it ethically 正当と認められる.

In some areas the number of women 捜し出すing eggs is five times the number of 寄贈者s, and the wait for 治療 can be more than two years. For many couples such a wait massively 減ずるs the chance of success.

同様に as ovaries, unborn babies have a lifetime 供給（する） of tiny sacs called follicles, inside which eggs 円熟した once puberty is reached. By 24 weeks gestation, a foetus will have seven million-such follicles - a rich 可能性のある-source of human eggs.

The shocking new 研究 was carried out by 専門家s at the Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba, 近づく Tel Aviv, in 共同 with Utrecht University. It 伴う／関わるd tissue from seven babies 中止するd at between 22 and 33 weeks.

Slices of their ovarian tissue were grown in a culture of 化学製品s and hormones. Over four weeks, the follicles 円熟したd to the 行う／開催する／段階 just before an egg appears.

Dr Biron-Shental said: 'The goal is still theoretical but once the follicles are developing we 推定する／予想する the eggs to age if we expose them to other 化学製品s.

'There are a lot of 倫理的な questions, but we use 寄付するd sperm and 寄付するd eggs already - it's ethically almost the same. I'm fully aware of the 論争 - but probably, in some place, it will be ethically 許容できる.'

Six of the babies were 中止するd after disabilities and defects were discovered, but the Israeli team 主張するd the follicles had shown no 調印するs of abnormality.

UK scientists are 許すd to use foetal 構成要素 for 研究 but the Human Fertilisation and Embryology 当局, which 治める／統治するs fertility clinics, has 無法者d the use of eggs from 中止するd foetuses.

A 広報担当者 said yesterday the 問題／発行する raised 'difficult social, 医療の, 科学の and 合法的な questions'.

He 追加するd: 'We decided it would be difficult for any child to come to 条件 with 存在 created using 中止するd foetal 構成要素.'