Scientists close to producing baby from two dads

IT IS a prospect worthy of a science fiction B-movie: male couples, women past the menopause, infertile couples and even celibate clergy producing their own children.

Yet this startling idea is now a serious scientific prospect, say researchers. Breakthroughs in stem-cell technology could soon lead to `non-traditional' parents having their own offspring, not always with the help of a woman's genes, some scientists saying within the next four years. The new technology currently falls outside existing controls on human fertilisation science.

"As yet the government has failed to address all the possibilities this technology opens up," said Anna Smajdor, an ethicist at Imperial College London.

Yet developments are moving so fast it is critical that a discussion of the full ethical implications of the technology be launched, she believes.

"There are no existing governmental insights or guidance as to how ethical issues related to these areas might be approached. It is something we need to address."

"You don't have to be infertile to have an interest in reproductive technology," she said last week. "This could mean anyone can become a parent; women after the menopause, gay couples, celibate men."