In the past, when courts considered disputes over what to do with no-longer-wanted embryos, they typically considered them property. The Alabama ruling challenges this legal precedent.
The characteristic hammer-shaped head is just becoming visible in this image of an embryonic bonnethead shark. Scale bar = 1 cm.
Steven Byrum and Gareth Fraser, Department of Biology, University of Florida
Because hammerhead sharks give birth to live young, studying their embryonic development is much more complicated than harvesting some eggs and watching them develop in real time.
In April, scientists implanted synthetic monkey embryos in female monkeys. While none of them developed into fetuses, this is a new development that raises important ethical questions.
Human embryos are far more likely to die than come to term, an evolutionary trait seen across species. Laws granting personhood at conception ignore built-in embryo loss, with potentially grave consequences.
Adults today may have grown up dreaming they would live to see working jet packs and robot assistants but few people imagined it would be possible to create life without reproductive cells.
Marnie Blewitt, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) and Natalia Benetti, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
Our study in mice shows epigenetic changes in the mother can be passed to her offspring to influence a critical time in how the spine develops.
Louise Brown, who was the world’s first baby to be born from in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 1978, poses with equipment used in early IVF treatments.
Daniel Leal-Olivas/ Getty
Naomi Cahn, University of Virginia and Dena Sharp, University of California College of the Law, San Francisco
An unknown number of people have lost their dreams of parenthood because of storage disasters at fertility clinics. These experts note poor government oversight and the need for stronger regulation.
Human embryo research is used to understand foetal development and its applications in treating or eliminating disease.
(Shutterstock)
In most countries, scientific research that uses human embryos has to halt after the 14th day. New guidelines recommend the public’s input in extending the time period.
Illustration of an early stage human embryo.
nobeastsofierce via Shutterstock
Researchers have grown the first human-monkey hybrid embryos as well as mouse embryos in artificial wombs late into development. These biomedical breakthroughs raise different ethical quandaries.
Getting the job done. A female Asian water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus) produced a daughter (left) without the assistance of a male.
Skip Brown/Smithsonian’s National Zoo
Mercedes Burns, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Parthenogenesis, a form of reproduction in which an egg develops into an embryo without being fertilized by sperm, might be more common than you realized.
Genetic testing costs around A$700 per embryo.
KieferPix
Women aged over 35 are sometimes offered genetic testing of their IVF embryos to rule out abnormalities. But it’s expensive and doesn’t increase their chance of a baby. In fact, it could reduce it.
Men have nipples because of a quirk in how embryos develop. But that’s only part of the story of this seemingly redundant body part.
from www.shutterstock.com
CRISPR technology could have momentous effects if it’s used to edit genes that will be inherited by future generations. Researchers and ethicists continue to weigh appropriate guidelines.
When it comes to reproduction, couple have more choices than ever before.
Chinnapong/Shutterstock.com
A ban on clinical trials involving gene editing rules out the controversial procedure done in China. But it also prevents procedures that could offer couples a chance for healthy children without genetic disorders.
Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, University of Melbourne; Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford
Professor - Emerging Technologies (Stem Cells) at The University of Melbourne and Group Leader - Stem Cell Ethics & Policy at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, The University of Melbourne