On Wednesday, the BBC released a piece detailing scientists' latest creation - a whole model of a human embryo made without sperm or an egg. Talk about a dystopian universe!
Supposedly, The Weizmann Institute in Israel developed an entity that very closely resembles an early human being embryo, which just isn’t a real human at all.
Unironically, people are referring to the creation as something very close to a human embryo, yet when a woman becomes pregnant and her eggs are fertilized by a man's sperm, that embryo is something that can be killed and discarded at a moments notice. Not to mention, the hype something like this has received has been astronomical. Whereas, when a woman is pregnant, many think the embryo is so worthless that it should just be killed! This whole situation is backwards!
While this seems weird and like the scientists are trying to play God, supposedly they developed it to provide a more ethical way to understand embryos and why and how they are so fragile in their earliest stages of development.
The “embryo” was formed with naive stem cells, which were then programmed to “gain the potential to become any type of tissue in the body,” as the BBC noted. Then, chemicals were added to coax the stem cells into becoming epiblast cells, “which become the embryo proper,” trophoblast cells, to become the “placenta,” hypoblast cells, “which become the supportive yolk sac,” and extraembryonic mesoderm cells, which are sort of supportive cells.
“The hope is embryo models can help scientists explain how different types of cell emerge, witness the earliest steps in building the body's organs or understand inherited or genetic diseases,” the BBC report indicated. It also noted that this could help improve in vitro fertilization (IVF) success rates as it may help people understand why some embryos fail or which medications are and aren’t safe during pregnancy.
While it appeared the scientists had good intentions, this does seem a little freaky, and I’m not the only one to think so. Over on X, users rejected the development.
“Playing God is a dangerous game that will come with some dark consequences,” conservative commentator and father Robby Starbuck stated.
Others called for the science to halt. “We don't need to do this, it needs to stop,” one wrote.
Another said, “Because we can doesn’t mean we should.”
Others took a humorous approach to bash the development. “Great more soulless Democrats,” one wrote while another replied, ‘All they heard was 'growable voters.’”
One user stated, “Clone Wars!!!” One more user said, “New Resident Evil plot dropped.”
Jokes aside, this leaves us with the question: What’s next?!