In a new study, scientists created fertile and mature eggs from mouse skin cells for the first time. While scientists say that it could help address infertility, other scientists look at the research from an ethical perspective.  

Katshushiko Hayashi and his team of scientists from Japan have been re-creating the process of how eggs develop by conducting lab experiments since 2012. During their previous experiment, they were able to turn mouse skin cells into primary germ cells which developed fully after re-implanting them into a mouse's ovary. But recently, the team was able to develop mature eggs without the support of the animal.

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While they have been praised by several scientists, Martin Johnson, a professor of reproductive sciences at the University of Cambridge raised an ethical conundrum. Hayashi and his team did admit that there were a few limitations to their research. One was that the process wasn't always successful, and if it did work, the eggs produced weren't that healthy at all. They were only able to yield eight mouse babies from 1,348 embryos; two were eaten by the mothers because they seem abnormal.

But Johnson said that aside from the high risk of abnormality, Hayashi, and his team needed to add a type of cell which could only be obtained from an embryo to complete the process. This means that if humans were to use their technique, the process would require in vitro fertilization (IVF) which is ethically not allowed.

Other scientists also said that further research should be conducted to see what happened to the mouse embryos that failed to develop normally. Otherwise, scientists would end up creating half-baked human babies, which could lead to even more ethical concerns.