When scientists announced at a conference last week that they had created synthetic human embryos, it felt like something from Brave New World. News coverage conjured up images of scientists creating new human life in an unnatural way and then using it to conduct experiments.
The name applied to this latest advance is unfortunate, however, because the discovery represents a potentially significant breakthrough in the study of infertility and in particular, research into why embryos so often fail to implant in the uterus. While there are still unanswered questions about how these so-called synthetic embryos were created, misunderstandings and confusion could lead to bans that could derail important scientific work.
Whether the work is considered ethical and legal depends on whether these lab-grown clusters of cells have the potential to become human life. The scientists who created them, and others familiar with the work, say they can’t, and that’s part of what makes this an important discovery.
