Bio-fertility tech research scientist. (Photo courtesy of Conception)
OAKLAND, Calif. | A group of research scientists are working on a technology that would eliminate barriers for couples suffering from infertility, and potentially allow male-male couples to have biological children.
The latter part of the company’s dedicated research drew the ire of the National Organization for Marriage’s head, Brian Brown, who has been a leading opponent of equality rights for LGBTQ+ people and leads the fight to end same-sex marriages irrespective of the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which granted same-sex couples the ability to get married.
Conception, a California-based bio-fertility tech start-up, is working in the field of fertility development utilizing human stem cells to turn into human eggs and eventually embryos. Speaking with NPR’s senior science reporter Rob Stein, Matt Krisiloff, a co-founder of the biotech research firm said that Conception is trying to accelerate, and eventually commercialize, a field of biomedical research known as in vitro gametogenesis (IVG).
“Basically, we’re trying to turn a type of stem cell called an induced pluripotent stem cell into a human egg,” Krisiloff says. “[This] really opens the door, if you can create eggs, to be able to help people have children that otherwise don’t have options right now.”
He then noted: “My personal biggest interest in it is it could allow same-sex couples to be able to have biological children together as well. Yeah, I’m gay, and it’s something that got me so personally interested in this in the first place.”
In an emailed fundraising missive, NOM head Brown writes:
“This will stun you, and hopefully serve as a wake-up call for engagement. Scientists from the LGBT community have started a biotech firm with the express purpose of seeking to manufacture human eggs and sperm in a lab so that same-sex couples can produce children containing the DNA of both partners.
“The biotech startup, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is called Conception. The technology they are developing – “in vitro gametogenesis” (IVG) – is designed to harvest human stem cells, manipulate them using a variety of laboratory techniques into what is called an “induced pluripotent stem cell,” and then further manipulate and incubate them in what the company calls “mini ovaries.”
“If the experimental technology pans out, the human egg created in a lab with the DNA of a gay man could be fertilized by the sperm of his partner, and then the resulting embryo would be carried by a surrogate through to the birth of a baby that is genetically related to both men.
“So much is wrong with this situation. The creation of lab babies to satisfy the desires of the LGBT community is morally and ethically bankrupt.
“It not only challenges the natural order created by God, but it raises extremely serious concerns relating to things such as human cloning, designer babies, eugenics, and even cross-species development.
“Please help NOM sound the alarm about this dangerous development and urge people to demand that our elected officials step in to stop or severely regulate this nascent technology.”
In his alarmist fundraiser Brown leaves out the mission and ethics statement the bio-firm states on its website:
“We do not take the development of this technology lightly. Our hope is that it will one day be used to bring healthy kids into the world, so we must hold ourselves to very high safety and ethical standards. Our plan will be to work closely with scientific, regulatory and ethical experts to ensure this technology develops safely and responsibly.”
NPR reported that the rapid development of IVG raises ethical concerns.
“This could take us into a kind of Gattaca world,” says Marcy Darnovsky, who runs the Center for Genetics and Society in Berkeley.
IVG could accelerate the rush toward all kinds of dystopian scenarios, including designer babies, Darnovsky says. “Combining IVG and genome editing and commercialization, you’ve really got kind of a toxic stew to create people who are supposedly biologically superior to others,” she says. “We don’t want to pave the road toward any kind of future that looks anything like that.”
According to NPR, others argue “the potential benefits of technology to create eggs and sperm from stem cells would be substantial for many people.”
“I’m a fan of the IVG idea,” says Hank Greely, a Stanford University bioethicist. “I think it offers the possibility for millions of couples who desperately want to have kids that are genetically half-one, half-the-other who can’t do that now to have those children.”
Greely also worries about commercial pressures pushing IVG so quickly. “I live in Silicon Valley, where the motto is ‘Move fast and break things.’ Of course it worries me,” Greely says. “Happily, the [Food and Drug Administration] does not want you to move fast and break things. And the FDA has a lot of power. I’m confident the FDA will use that power. Because we don’t think babies are like iPhones.”
As new technologies are created, one of the common dominators in terms of the affect on the LGBTQ+ community is a proven track record of opposition from the right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ organizations like NOM.
