In what appears a world first scientists in the US have made early-stage human embryos by manipulating DNA taken from people's skin cells and placed in a donor egg that is then fertilised with sperm – a process that in essence hijacks the human reproductive system of a male sperm fusing with a female ovum to create new life.
The technique could overcome infertility due to old age or disease, by using almost any cell in the body as the starting point for life, reports the BBC. It could even allow same-sex couples to have a child genetically related to both parents, thereby, in a male same-sex couple, removing the need for the involvement of a biological mother.
