LONDON, July 25 (UPI) -- A leading medical expert predicts an end to most infertility cases in the next decade through stem cell technology and fertility treatment.
The key, says Alan Trounson, is the ability to grow artificial eggs and sperm in the laboratory. In the future, he told the London Telegraph, "everyone who is infertile will be helped."
Another major factor is the interest in medical help. Three in four infertile women now seek help whereas in 1978, when the first "test-tube baby," Louise Brown, was born, doctors helped around one in 20 infertile patients.
"We will be able to take cells and reconstruct the equivalent of sperm and eggs," said Trounson, of the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development in Victoria, Australia.
Recent experiments on mice have shown that it is possible to make synthetic sex cells, a feat that could also open the way for homosexual couples to have children that are genetically their own.
