Scientist at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine have performed the first successful transplant to testicular tissue from one species to another. This scientific breakthrough raises several ethical questions. Just how far will men go?
These scientists took sperm-generating tissue from different species of animals and put it on the back of immunosuppressed mice. This tissue took root and began to churn out sperm. The researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have made it possible for a mouse to produce sperm from pigs and goats. The ethical issue is will man go so far as to have their testicular tissue transplanted into this type of mouse as well? There is no reason to think that it would not be possible for other species.
The researchers reasoning for performing such a procedure appears on the surface to have merit. For example, if there is a species that is nearing extinction; it would be possible to transplant tissue from that animal to a mouse and have an exhaustible source of sperm to use to restore that species. Secondly, they feel that a mouse that can produce sperm will help scientists study the process of sperm formation so that it could be possible to figure out what diseases and disorders cause infertility in animals. This process now is impossible without either getting trampled or eaten up by your subject.
The question that really needs to be answered is, is it right to transplant reproductive cells across species? This is a very unnatural process. Maybe the best ethical question to be asked is whether there is sufficient benefit in doing something unnatural to let it be done.
While Scientific Ethics raise one question, Christian Ethics should have a definite stance on this issue. In the Bible the book of Genesis says that God created all the different animals after their own kind. God never intended for the animals to be cross bred. Cross breeding is a manmade activity that started after he entered into his sinful nature. There is the possibility of some type of mutant creature that may come forth.
While there may be some useful purpose of this procedure, it is also too early to know if you could reliably make healthy offspring from transplanted sperm cells. The Christian needs to begin to explore these questions in order to start the process of finding answers.
This information was taken from Newsweek Magazine website_ Bioethics Section