News of the Year 2012
        
            By Pete Shanks, 
                Biopolitical Times
             | 12. 20. 2012
        
                    
                                    
                    
                                                                                                                                    
                                                                            
                              
    
  
  
    
  
          
  
      
    
             
  This was quite a year for reproductive and genetic technologies, and many of the biggest stories will certainly have sequels. Among the most significant topics were:
 
   
    - Artificial gametes and cloning
- Inheritable genetic modification 
- Prenatal, newborn and other genetic testing
- The fertility industry
- Commercial surrogacy
- Egg “donation” / egg freezing
- Eugenics as policy
- Forensic DNA / DNA databases 
- Stem cells: therapies and scandals
- Synthetic biology and the bioeconomy
 
 
   Artificial gametes and cloning
 Artificial gametes and cloning 
 
  The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka, for cloning a frog and discovering how to reprogram adult cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, respectively. Scientists are still expanding on these breakthroughs.
 
  Mitinori Saitou and colleagues in Kyoto created mice by using sperm and eggs grown from iPS cells, though supplied ovaries were also needed, at least for the time being. This sparked immediate speculation about human applications, as did an earlier Chinese technique of generating sperm. In Korea, there was a push to remove restrictions on human research cloning, and eventually reproductive cloning. Korean animal cloning also garnered...
 
       
 
  
 
    
    
  
   
                        
                                                                                
                 
                                                    
                            
                                  
    
  
  
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On September 30th, a team of 21 scientists from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) published a significant paper in Nature Communications, with a scientifically accurate but, to many, somewhat abstruse headline:
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