IN MOST countries, gay and lesbian couples can’t even get married. Yet
according to newspaper headlines this week, same-sex couples could soon have
children of their own, using the egg of one woman and a nonreproductive cell
from the body of another woman, for example. These children will carry a mixture
of the couple’s genes, just like babies made the old-fashioned way.
The key element of the research causing the fuss, however, is persuading a
normal cell to shed one of its two sets of chromosomes, allowing it to replace
an egg or sperm cell
(see New Scientist, 7 July,…
