Using only skin cells, Israeli lab makes synthetic mouse embryos with beating hearts

“Synthetic embryo” is an odd turn of phrase. They got them to grow for eight days outside of a uterus, getting to the point of having brains and beating hearts.

They are similar to regular embryos, but are not viable for implantation.

He foresees a day when sick patients may give skin or blood cells for the growth of artificial embryo-like structures, which could in turn yield the cells needed to grow organs.

I saw that movie… had Boromir, Black Widow and Obi Wan.

In any event, if this line of research continues successfully, the implications could be remarkable. never mind growing organs: this will allow people to clone themselves. This also involves “incubators” that are effectively artificial wombs, allowing people to have babies without the bother of carrying babies… no need to put the mother life, health, comfort at risk. No need, in fact, for a mother at all: this sort of thing will allow a man to grow a clone of himself.

How long before the *ability* to grow clones becomes the *expectation* to grow clones? As in… when this technology is made practical, how long before “non-traditional” people start demanding that insurance companies and the government pay for this so they can have babies that nature would not otherwise allow?