Two Sets of Queer Genes

Read on, if your Monday is going fine and you want to ruin it:

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have proved for the first time that human embryonic stem (ES) cells can form the precursors of sperm and eggs in the laboratory, a critical step towards making synthetic versions for infertile as well as homosexual couples. . .

The technology raises fresh ethical questions to add to those posed by the use of ES cells and therapeutic cloning. It also raises the prospect of allowing homosexual couples to have children that bear the genes of both parents – though there are still difficult technical barriers to making viable sperm from female stem cells and eggs from male ones.

Link.

The article says the technology is at least ten years away.