Treatment is still experimental.
You’ve heard about
women freezing their eggs so that they can have children later in
life. Now doctors have frozen the sperm-generating cells of a
3-month-old boy who could become infertile after cancer treatment.
Doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
have offered the treatment to the parents of young boys although the
treatment is still experimental and there are no guarantees of
success.

Dr Jill Ginsberg, a paediatric oncologist at the hospital, told
the London Times: “Over the past year we have done
testicular biopsies on about 12 boys. They are as young as a few
months to 11 years. The youngest boy was three months. Ginsberg added
that taking biopsies from the testicles, which contain the sperm stem
cells, does not harm the infants. The problem with this technique is
that it has not actually succeeded yet. The technique involves
removing spermatogonial stem cells, freezing them, and hoping for the
best when the boy wants to father children in later life. ~ London
Sunday Times, June 21

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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