Goodbye, sex: Making babies by creating eggs from skin cells is possible, says genetic ethics expert

Having sexual intercourse to create babies could soon become optional for couples, says a genetic ethics expert from Stanford University. In lieu of coitus, eggs could be created from human skin, according to Professor Hank Greely in his new book.

The eggs would then be fertilised by the father’s sperm to make 100 different embryos from where parents could choose which babies to raise. Among the benefits of this method of procreation is it would rule out genetic ailments.

Admittedly, romance would be gone and it would break thousands of years of evolution. Those scenarios – which could happen in the next 20 or 40 years – are because of developments in genetic and stem cell research that would lead to new methods which would improve greatly preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), says Greely.

Greely points out in “The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction,” published by Harvard, that the first child born using PGD is actually 25 years old now and thousands are now being born that way. Skipping the sex part, though, doesn’t mean cutting off the rest of the birth experience because the embryo is implanted in the woman’s womb and she would still give birth to an infant.

Prior to implantation, the parents would get the embryos grouped by categories. Under one category which would affect one to two percent of the embryos, would have very severe, untreatable and nasty ailments. The second category would have the other diseases. The third has cosmetic features such as hair, eyes, shape and if the hair would turn white early. A fourth category, made up of behavioural, would have limited information, explains Greely.

The creation of eggs from skin cells does away with the current IVF method in which the woman must go through an invasive procedure to harvest her eggs. Greely notes that in the future, making babies the old way would be considered irresponsible parenting because the control for serious genetic ailments is removed, reports Metro.

However, an online poll conducted by Metro shows that as of now, 77 percent of couples would rather have sex to create a baby than donate skin to a scientist. Apparently, the joys of coitus is still irreplaceable for majority of heterosexual couples.