Lab-grown sperm, eggs may soon allow parents to customize their future children | HFEA held a meeting last week and announced that scientists are close to growing human eggs and sperm in a lab.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jan/26/lab-grown-eggs-sperm-viability-uk-fertility-watchdog
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From the article: Mass-producing eggs and sperm in a laboratory in order to have a baby with yourself or three other people in a “multiplex” parenting arrangement might sound like the plot of a dystopian novel.
But these startling scenarios are under consideration by the UK’s fertility watchdog, which has concluded that the technology could be on the brink of viability.
Bolstered by Silicon Valley investment, scientists are making such rapid progress that lab-grown human eggs and sperm could be a reality within a decade, a meeting of the [Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority](https://www.hfea.gov.uk/media/qgmfzsmo/2025-01-22-authority-papers.pdf) board heard last week.
In-vitro gametes (IVGs), eggs or sperm that are created in the lab from genetically reprogrammed skin or stem cells, are viewed as the holy grail of fertility research.
The technology promises to remove age barriers to conception and could pave the way for same-sex couples to have biological children together. It also poses unprecedented medical and ethical risks, which the HFEA now believes need to be considered in a proposed overhaul of fertility laws.
Peter Thompson, chief executive of the HFEA, said: “In-vitro gametes have the potential to vastly increase the availability of human sperm and eggs for research and, if proved safe, effective, and publicly acceptable, to provide new fertility treatment options for men with low sperm counts and women with low ovarian reserve.”
The technology also heralds more radical possibilities including “solo parenting” and “multiplex parenting”. Julia Chain, chair of HFEA, said: “It feels like we ought to have Steven Spielberg on this committee,” in a brief moment of levity in the discussion of how technology should be regulated.
Lab-grown eggs have already been used produce healthy babies in mice – including ones with two biological fathers. The equivalent feat is yet to be achieved using human cells, but US startups such as Conception and Gameto claim to be closing in on this prize.
The HFEA meeting noted that estimated timeframes ranged from two to three years – deemed to be optimistic – to a decade, with several clinicians at the meeting sharing the view that IVGs appeared destined to become “a routine part of clinical practice”.
The clinical use of IVGs would be prohibited under current law and there would be significant hurdles to proving that IVGs are safe, given that any unintended genetic changes to the cells would be passed down to all future generations.
Damn!!!!! The future is arriving fast!!!!!!
Next step is artificial wombs, humanity needs this.
What happens when you are not happy with the ‘custom’ made baby? You can return it for a better version?
I remember when I visited the millennium dome when it first opened and there was a system with a touch screen display which polled the public on their opinions about the future.
One of the questions (and the only question that I remember as it stood out to me) was asking about just this, stating that in the future it’ll possible to “design” your child e.g. what colour hair and eyes it would have and whether people would want this. I voted but never saw the results, probably because I was still a child at the time and didn’t make a note of how to find out the results.
Would have been interesting to see how people felt about it then vs now, but either way this concept isn’t new, but how they’re going about it especially with the “multiple parents” is certainly very interesting and I can see that alone bringing all sorts of legal complications if it was to ever become a reality.
“The Pod Generation” in real life!
Also, I’ll always remember Sandra Bullock’s response to Sylvester Stallone in Judge Dread. Sex in that future was seen as gross and inconvenient, which is fairly accurate in many ways. Hahaha
Gattaca was spot on when it started out with “in the not too distant future”.
I find this completely disgusting. Making sure kids don’t have genetic defects or deadly diseases? Great. Customizing you child? This isn’t fucking Skyrim.
Me no like tek no mo.
Me go ooga booga. Me touch grass all day.
…while updating my invokeai and downloading new models 🤣
‘And now every mother can choose the color… of their child… that’s not nature’s wayyyyyy…’ – Jamiroquai
Growing gametes =/= successful fertilization and implantation of lab-grown gametes
No one wants children anymore, custom or not.
Better start growing them in lab too.
i’m sure the christian right will have a field day with this lol.
In The Expanse the lead character, Holden, has like eight parents who live in a communal arrangement in a ranch in Montana. Truth often follows fiction.
Between humanoid robots and eugenics rich people don’t really need us poors anymore.
To clarify, rich parents will be able to customize their children. The poors will continue passing on bad genes.
Gattaca is coming for you all…
Gattaca is coming for you all…
Gattaca is coming for you all…
The only type of genetic editing that should be allowed is making sure children aren’t born with debilitating genetic defects/diseases and weeding out psychopathy and sociopathy from the genepool.
Actually allowing parents to customize their children to meet their exact preferences outside of that is out of the question.
disgusting.
Considering how people *NAME* their kids i wouldn’t fucking trust them to have a say in their genes and appearance.
i really hope this never happens. you cant just customise a child
J Kay has a message for these scientists.
https://youtu.be/4JkIs37a2JE?si=tdvCPAam6WUdN8T8
Corporations have been given the status of a “legal person” under the law. How long before those “legal people” start mass producing people of their own? If it can happen, it will happen. An AI trained army of little Muskies. Mark my words.
[Zager & Evans – In the Year 2525](https://open.spotify.com/track/3LdLGNKCW0dNr14JQlZPQt?si=e260b38ead1b4813) really getting more and more accurate 🙂
Interviews with the kids of parents who have chosen for specific traits are eye opening. If the sperm donor was tall and athletic it’s particularly difficult.
I saw an Outer Limits episode about this. Needless to say, it didn’t end well for the parents.
When everyone is perfect…being less than will be seen as an infectious disease.
So can we mass-produce humanoids with 200+ IQ, myostatin enabled double muscle mass, and which would have healthspan of 120+ years?
The technology has been around for this since Yamanaka (late 2000s) however it’s only being generated now which makes me think the main drawback/limitations have been ethics/authorization and not technology? Correct me if I’m wrong
In Sapiens the author predicts that we will eventually create a super species of human beings that after a while will find normal human beings subpar and will turn them (us) into slaves
To be clear, any such “customization” will be very limited due to epigenetics, i.e. the activation of specific genes in vitro, which can be contingent on outside factors such as nutrition, lifestyle etc. As of now, it is not even possible to determine something rather simple like fur color genetically – even literal clones may look very different, as their fur color depends not only on the genetical parents, but also on the host mother.
[https://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Cloned_Cat.html](https://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Cloned_Cat.html)
[https://www.nature.com/articles/nature723](https://www.nature.com/articles/nature723)
Some genes are more straightforward than others, so it may be that some phenotypical (!) aspects might be easier to change intentionally (!) than others. But it is very, very likely that behavioral (!) aspects of humans are very complex.
Now all we need are ExoWombs and infertile couples, or same sex ones can have kids of their own.
Finally we can print Hitler WAIT…WAIT…WHAT DID HITLER DO AGAIN?