FAKE NEWS: A group of researchers has created an artificial human

Creating a human embryo model is the first step towards "manufacturing people", according to a false narrative also picked up by the Romania media.

For conspiracy theorists, science is always at war with God

NEWS: “In a demonic frenzy, scientists are turning into an army of Frankensteins that create Monsters one after another. Scientists around the world keep playing  "God" and we will all have to bear the consequences. Every day, incredibly bizarre experiments are carried out in secret laboratories all over the planet. For example, it has been reported that a team of researchers has succeeded in creating a human "entity" that has neither mother nor father. [...] If such an entity can survive to this stage, can it go all the way and become a normal baby? Now that it has come this far, it is only a matter of time before this attempt is made by someone.

Children will literally be able to be raised naturally on a large scale, all over the world. Instead of having children naturally, parents will be able to simply order a baby that meets certain "specifications". And any baby showing "defects" will inevitably be rejected. Moreover, it is easy to imagine entire armies "made up" of tyrannical rulers, as we have seen in some sci-fi films. Will such "entities" really be human? Will they have a soul? There are so many things we don't know. And hopefully this kind of research will be banned so we never find out. Unfortunately, at this point, there is very little hindrance facing the scientific community. Most of the population has no idea what goes on in these secret labs, and most of our politicians don't seem to care. Thus, 'Science' will continue to advance everywhere in the world with very little resistance”.

NARRATIVE: In the future, people will be manufactured like any industrial product, meeting certain standards of quality and performance.

CONTEXT: The World Health Organization estimates that 17,5% of the planet’s adult population is afected by infertility , demonstrating an urgent need to increase access to fertility treatments for those in need. Population decline in certain parts of the planet could lead to economic decline and a low quality of life. That is why the concerns of the scientific community to reduce infertility have materialized in the last decades, among others, in the attempt to create an artificial uterus. The first successes in the field were recorded in 2017, when scientists grew a mammal in an artificial womb for the first time. Four years later, a team of Israeli scientists improved the technology, managing to grow synthetic embryos that mimicked mouse embryos for up to 11 days in artificial wombs, more than half the gestation period of a mouse.

As a result, in December 2022, a film showing a scientific concept and not an actual mass baby production facility triggered a fake news story about the world’s first baby factory”,  which started circulating in the conspiracy-promoting media,  even reaching some mainstream publications. The purpose of the film was actually to provoke a discussion about the future of childbirth and it was aimed at infertile couples and women who fear pregnancy and the pains of childbirth.

Meanwhile, the team of researchers in Israel developed the method used in 2021 to create models that mimic the human embryo in search of answers to questions related to pregnancy loss or types of infertility.

PURPOSE: Validating one's own conspiracy theories, weakening trust in science, promoting an ultra-conservative and ultra-religious agenda, decreasing trust in various international organizations such as the WHO, the UN or the EU.

A study undertaken and published cannot be considered secret

WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: The Weizmann Institute researchers' experiment represents an extremely important step in creating synthetic structures that mimic human embryos. The goal of such research is not to create artificial life, but to produce working models that allow scientists to study crucial stages of human development, which are currently inaccessible for both technical reasons and especially for ethical and moral concerns.

The method is identical to any scientific experiment that takes place in simulated, artificially created conditions, which do not involve affecting the environment outside the space in which the research is carried out. The same category of experiments includes, for example, computer simulation of neural networks, a method used in medicine for years. This research method could lead to new ways to test the effect of drugs on pregnancies, to better understand miscarriages and genetic diseases, and perhaps even to grow tissues and organs for transplantation.

In creating the model in question, cells derived from epithelial cells and cells "cultured" in the laboratory were used, returned, by a previously developed method, to the stage known as the "naive state", in which they are capable of becoming anything, that is to develop in any type of cell. And even though the model thus created is almost identical to a real human embryo 14 days after fertilization, which means it has some kind of internal structure, it doesn't have any of the characteristics needed to create organs on its own.

And despite the alarmist claims of the righteous, even the study's lead researcher, Dr. Jacob Hanna, admits that it raises some ethical questions about the possibility of potential future manipulation of human embryo development. However, making a comparison with nuclear physics, he argued that all research in this field should not be stopped, just because someone might choose to make a nuclear bomb. For this, Hanna also said, it is important that the public is involved and fully informed , and that all research is carried out "in the light", not "in the shadows".

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