For example, Caplan states that the panel recommends federal funding for studies on human parthenotes (eggs activated without sperm). But he totally ignores the evidence documented in the panel's report that mammalian parthenotes are intrinsically unable to develop much beyond implantation, owing to differential "imprinting" of genes inherited from the mother and father.
The panel felt that the study of human parthenotes would throw light on mechanisms regulating early gene expression, including DNA methylation and imprinting, which are relevant to certain inherited diseases. However, given the evidence that parthenotes would not develop normally to term, the panel emphatically recommends prohibiting their transfer to a uterus.
Caplan blatantly ignores these carefully deliberated guidelines, and instead chooses to raise the spectre that "Growing eggs without sperm for the purposes of research is the preliminary work necessary to finding out whether you can grow babies without sperm for the purposes of who knows ...
