Human ova from stem cells:
There is a ray of light. It looks like it will be seriously possible to create ova for humans from ovarian stem cells. (Life Begins at 45 ECONOMIST vol. 492 no. 8774 March 3, 2012 page 90) It is already possible to find stem cells in mouse ovaries and use them to produce normal mouse pups. Dr. Jonathan Tilly of Harvard Medical school found them first and later learned that there was normal frozen ovarian tissue in the laboratory of Yasushi Takai of Saitama Medical University of Japan left over from sex change operations. It was possible to extract stem cells and produce human ova. The next step is to see if they can be coaxed into being fertilized. That can’t be done in the United States, so he will collaborate with Evelyn Telfer of Edinburgh.
There seem to be some ironies here, but it well may be the case that women formerly thought to be too old to have their own children will soon be enabled.
This does not exactly mean that there is no longer a fertility issue in the world, but it well might mean that there are a few more years to work with than I had thought. So far as I am concerned, the warning is not yet out. And when it gets out, time will be short at best. So a few years more is wonderful news.
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