Events

Artificial Gametes: The What, Why and How of Creating Sperm and Eggs in the Laboratory

Progress Educational Trust
Centre for Life, Times Square, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 4EP, UK
12 February 2008 -

An evening debate at the Newcastle Centre for Life organised by the Progress Educational Trust (PET), supported by the Wellcome Trust.

Scientists in Newcastle can now produce early-stage human sperm cells in the laboratory. This research is important for furthering our understanding of human development. If human eggs could be produced using similar methods in future, then this could potentially allow babies to be created without the need for testes or ovaries. Such innovation might have profound consequences for infertility treatment, sperm/egg donation and reproductive autonomy. This event will explore both the cutting-edge science of artificial gametes and the social and ethical questions raised by their use.

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Speakers

• Dr Donald Bruce
  Director of Edinethics and former Director of the Church of Scotland's Society, Religion and Technology Project

• Sir John Burn
  Professor of Clinical Genetics and Head of the Institute of Human Genetics at Newcastle University

• Dr Anna Smajdor
  Adviser to PET and Lecturer in Ethics at the University of East Anglia

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Chair

• Alison Murdoch
  Head of the Fertility Centre at the Newcastle Centre for Life and Professor of Reproductive Medicine at Newcastle University's Institute of Human Genetics

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