10:13 am UTC May. 2, 2021
Human blastocyst, Getty Images
For more than 30 years, scientists have followed a rule they imposed on themselves to avoid growing a human embryo in a lab dish for more than 14 days.
Until recently, the 14-day rule was largely academic. Scientists couldn t grow them for that long if they wanted to.
But in 2016, two teams of researchers reached 12 days, and in 2019, another group grew monkey embryos for 19 days.
These advances have spurred some scientists to argue
in two recent papers that the 14-day rule should be
modified or dropped. There s a lot to be learned by pushing embryos out to 28 days, they say.
Should scientists be allowed to grow human embryos in a dish beyond 14 days? Is it scientifically important or morally wrong?
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Embryo research: 14-day rule under review, raising ethical questions
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