Coming soon: Babies made without men

• The artificial sperm is now being touted as one of the best ways that can help men save their marriages due to problems that arise from the inability to sire.

Women will soon be able to make babies without men... thanks to a breakthrough announced by British scientists who say they have found a way to make artificial sperm.

And they hope to have perfected the sperm by 2015.

The new development comes as good news for men suffering from infertility.

The artificial sperm is now being touted as one of the best ways that can help men save their marriages due to problems that arise from the inability to sire.

Scientists at the Newcastle University in the United Kingdom say that they have created a human sperm using embryonic stem cells, a first in science development, which will lead researchers to a better understanding of the causes of infertility.

The researchers, led by Professor Karim Nayernia, have developed a new technique, which has made the creation of human sperm possible in the laboratory.

“This is an important development as it will allow researchers to study in detail how sperm forms and lead to a better understanding of infertility in men, why it happens and what is causing it.

“This understanding could help us develop new ways to help couples suffering from infertility so that they can have a child which is genetically theirs,” Prof Nayernia said following the publications of the findings last week.

The work was published on July 8 in the academic journal Stem Cells and Development and posted on Newcastle University’s website.

According to Dr Joshua Noreh, who was behind the introduction In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) in Kenya, as long as its safety and outcome is established, the artificial sperm could offer an option to infertile men.

However, he told the Nation that he was not convinced that either could ever be established.

“We may not know how safe it could be, it would take a while by which time it would already be too late,” said Dr Noreh in an interview.

He said initial trials by the scientists had no way of proving that the babies produced by the sperm would be 100 per cent healthy or that they will not develop complications later in life.

Short life span
“Similar experiments with animals have been successful but most of them ended up having a short life span or diseases related to the experiment,” he added.

The fertility expert’s sentiments correspond to those made by a section of British doctors. They have argued that the created cells had distinctive genetic features and molecular markers and it was not clear they were the same as natural sperms.