How to make a story out of a non-story: hype, hubris and motherless embryos
by Philippa Taylor, CMF:
I did not plan to write a blog on the ‘motherless babies’ story. I assumed that mainstream journalists would read at least some of the detail of new research that has combined sperm with non-egg cells to produce 30 mouse pups that then went on to have healthy offspring themselves, and to report the actual findings reasonably accurately.
However I was proved wrong today when I saw the headlines:
‘The babies with no mothers: Scientists discover how to make embryos from skin cells instead of eggs, making women redundant’ (the Daily Mail)
‘Motherless babies possible as scientists create live offspring without need for female egg’ (The Daily Telegraph)
‘Making babies without eggs may be possible, say scientists’ (The BBC). They even include the headline ‘End of mum and dad?’
‘Skin cells might be used instead of eggs to make embryos, scientists say’ (The Guardian)
Yet the researchers press release and research paper said the following, with my emphases added (bear in mind that the purpose of a press release and conference is to present a simplified version of the research in order to generate headlines):
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