![\"Mouse-embryos-grown-in-vitro-by-Israeli-researchers-rapidnews\"](\"https:\/\/dailyrapidnews.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Mouse-embryos-grown-in-vitro-by-Israeli-researchers-rapidnews.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAnother step in \u201can explosion of new techniques and ideas for studying early development\u201d of human embryos comes from Israel, where researchers have successfully grown mouse embryos for 12 days, which is about half the animal\u2019s natural gestation period. The rough equivalent for a human would be a first-trimestre baby.<\/p>\n
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It seems that\u00a0ectogenesis\u00a0is coming closer \u2013 the Brave New World vision of hatcheries in gestating artificially conceived babies.<\/p>\n
The lead author, Jacob Hanna, of the Weizmann Institute of Science, was interviewed about his work in\u00a0MIT Technology Review. He acknowledge that there are ethical issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do understand the difficulties. I understand. You are entering the domain of abortions,\u201d says Hanna. However, he says that researchers are already experimenting on and destroying surplus embryos from IVF clinics.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I would advocate growing it until day 40 and then disposing of it,\u201d Hanna said. \u201cInstead of getting tissue from abortions, let\u2019s take a blastocyst and grow it.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the moment, the mouse embryos only develop if they have been attached to the uterus wall, at least briefly. But Hanna says that his team would like to grow the embryo entirely in vitro.<\/p>\n
And if the 14-day limit for growing human embryos is scrapped, he looks forward to doing similar research on human embryos.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the guidelines are updated, I can apply, and it will be approved. It\u2019s a very important experiment,\u201d says Hanna. \u201cWe need to see human embryos gastrulate and form organs and start perturbing it. The benefit of growing human embryos to week three, week four, week five is invaluable. I think those experiments should at least be considered. If we can get to an advanced human embryo, we can learn so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually it might be possible to grow embryos for their organs, according to William Hurlbut, a doctor and bioethicist at Stanford University. \u201cI don\u2019t think that organ harvesting is so far-fetched. It could eventually get there. But it\u2019s very fraught, because one person\u2019s boundary is not another person\u2019s boundary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another step in \u201can explosion of new techniques and ideas for studying early development\u201d of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-science"],"yoast_head":"\n