The first mouse synthetic embryo
development, scientists would be able to grow human synthetic embryos with fully functioning organs, which could then be harvested and given to patients in need of an organ transplant. This could potentially be one of the century's greatest breakthroughs, saving thousands of lives each year. Long transplant waitlists (where unfortunately many patients lose their life) would become a thing of the past; and organ rejection would no longer be an issue, as these organs could be grown from a cell belonging to the patient (the markers on the cells which make up the organ would be recognized by the immune system as self, and thus no immune response would be carried out on the organ). This would be a truly huge leap forward in the growing field of personalized healthcare.
Ethical and legal aspects
Prof. Zernicka- Goetz’s discovery , however, also carries extremely significant ethical and legal implications: in this field, scientific advances are now well-ahead of current legal frameworks.
The main ethical issue that this discovery brings forward is: ‘ When is a synthetic embryo to be considered the same as a real one? ’ Synthetic embryo technology is still in its adolescence, with current models surviving only a couple of weeks in culture and lacking the ability to develop into living organisms when implanted into an actual womb. Yet the rapidity at which the field of science is progressing leads to the conclusion that more complex models developed in the future may be able to grow into living creatures. Experiments as early as April 2023 – when a group of Chinese scientists grew artificial embryos and implanted them into the wombs of live monkeys where they developed for a few days (Devlin, 2023) – remind us that synthetic human embryos capable of developing into living humans are not as distant as we believe them to be. Whether the synthetic embryos should be considered a close substitute of real ones will have real and practical implications for how research should proceed, with the likelihood that the pace of new discoveries will be substantially increased. A subset of these ethical implications involves the applicability of the ‘ 14-Day Rule ’ and if a more ‘ loose ’ interpretation could allow scientists to investigate what happens in the ‘ Black Box ’ period, which refers to the time 16-17 days post fertilization known as gastrulation: this is recognized to be the moment at which ‘l ife ’ begins, when the embryo begins complex development – bearing resemblance to a foetus, forming vital organs, and the foundation for a spinal cord. Due to stringent legislation consistent across many developed countries capable of conducting research in this field, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) ruled that embryos cultured using IVF techniques must be terminated ahead of this pivotal moment. In 2021, however, the ISSCR altered its own guidelines to allow for potential exemptions to the 14-day rule in the event scientists could put forward solid scientific evidence to continue their studies (Ball, 2023). Prof. Zernicka- Goetz’s discovery now supports the argument for a ‘ rethink ’ of the 14-day rule (and potentially its scrapping) on the grounds of the artificial nature of the synthetic embryo. This would allow scientists to ‘ peer ’ into this previously uncharted era of embryo development, and study in great detail the complicated process of gastrulation. A further – logically subsequent – ethical implication of this discovery concerns whether synthetic embryos could be harvested for their organs. The discussion becomes even more controversial when considering that foetuses as early as three months into development may have a sophisticated enough nervous system and brain to experience pain (Fischer, 2023). Once again, the pivotal point here is in
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