CGS-authored
Say you're a woman who wants to have fertility treatment but can't afford the $5,000 to $6,000 cost.
What if you could get it for half-price, by agreeing to donate half the eggs you produce for stem cell research?
Interested?
British women may get a crack at that deal in a few months, under a plan pursued by Dr. Alison Murdoch of Newcastle University.
This concept, which resembles a strategy sometimes used to get eggs for fertility treatment, is just one of several new efforts to boost the supply of human eggs needed for research. The shortage has triggered an ethical debate on both sides of the Atlantic: Should women be paid for supplying eggs?
Scientists need eggs for a process called therapeutic cloning, which creates stem cells genetically matched to an individual. It may be used someday to create tissue to treat illnesses like diabetes and Parkinson's disease, providing transplant material that's genetically matched to the patient so that it won't be rejected. Therapeutic cloning may also help scientists develop better drug treatments.
The process involves transferring DNA into...