Editing Reproduction (section)

==Life without==
The existence of life without reproduction is the subject of some speculation. The biological study of how the origin of life produced reproducing organisms from non-reproducing elements is called [[abiogenesis]]. Whether or not there were several independent abiogenetic events, biologists believe that the [[last universal ancestor]] to all present life on Earth lived about [[Timeline of evolution|3.5 billion years ago]].

Scientists have speculated about the possibility of creating life non-reproductively in the laboratory. Several scientists have succeeded in producing simple viruses from entirely non-living materials.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Cello|first1=Jeronimo|last2=Paul|first2=Aniko V.|last3=Wimmer|first3=Eckard|date=2002-08-09|title=Chemical synthesis of poliovirus cDNA: generation of infectious virus in the absence of natural template|journal=Science|volume=297|issue=5583|pages=1016–1018|doi=10.1126/science.1072266|issn=1095-9203|pmid=12114528|bibcode=2002Sci...297.1016C |s2cid=5810309 |doi-access=free}}</ref> However, viruses are often regarded as not alive. Being nothing more than a bit of RNA or DNA in a protein capsule, they have no [[metabolism]] and can only [[self-replication|replicate]] with the assistance of a hijacked [[cell (biology)|cell]]'s metabolic machinery.

The production of a truly living organism (e.g. a simple bacterium) with no ancestors would be a much more complex task, but may well be possible to some degree according to current biological knowledge. A [[Synthetic Genomics|synthetic genome]] has been transferred into an existing bacterium where it replaced the native DNA, resulting in the artificial production of a new ''[[M. mycoides]]'' organism.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1126/science.1190719 |pmid=20488990 |year=2010 |last1=Gibson |first1=D. |last2=Glass |first2=J. |last3=Lartigue |first3=C. |last4=Noskov |first4=V. |last5=Chuang |first5=R. |last6=Algire |first6=M. |last7=Benders |first7=G. |last8=Montague |first8=M. |last9=Ma |first9=L. |last10=Moodie |first10=M.M. |last11=Merryman |first11=C. |last12=Vashee |first12=S. |last13=Krishnakumar |first13=R. |last14=Assad-Garcia |first14=N. |last15=Andrews-Pfannkoch |first15=C. |last16=Denisova |first16=E.A. |last17=Young |first17=L. |last18=Qi |first18=Z.-Q. |last19=Segall-Shapiro |first19=T.H. |last20=Calvey |first20=C.H. |last21=Parmar |first21=P.P. |last22=Hutchison Ca |first22=C.A. |last23=Smith |first23=H.O. |last24=Venter |first24=J.C. |title=Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome |journal=Science |volume=329 |issue=5987 |pages=52–56 |bibcode=2010Sci...329...52G |s2cid=7320517 |doi-access=}}</ref>

There is some debate within the scientific community over whether this cell can be considered completely synthetic<ref name="venter">{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703559004575256470152341984|title=Scientists Create First Synthetic Cell|author=Robert Lee Hotz|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|date=May 21, 2010|access-date=April 13, 2012|archive-date=January 29, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150129112052/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703559004575256470152341984|url-status=live}}</ref> on the grounds that the chemically synthesized genome was an almost 1:1 copy of a naturally occurring genome and, the recipient cell was a naturally occurring bacterium. The Craig Venter Institute maintains the term "synthetic bacterial cell" but they also clarify "...we do not consider this to be "creating life from scratch" but rather we are creating new life out of already existing life using synthetic DNA".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jcvi.org/cms/research/projects/first-self-replicating-synthetic-bacterial-cell/faq |title=FAQ |author=Craig Venter Institute |access-date=2011-04-24 |archive-date=2010-12-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101228180155/http://www.jcvi.org/cms/research/projects/first-self-replicating-synthetic-bacterial-cell/faq/ }}</ref> Venter plans to patent his experimental cells, stating that "they are pretty clearly human inventions".<ref name="venter"/> Its creators suggests that building 'synthetic life' would allow researchers to learn about life by building it, rather than by tearing it apart. They also propose to stretch the boundaries between life and machines until the two overlap to yield "truly programmable organisms".<ref>{{Cite journal | author = W. Wayte Gibbs | title = Synthetic Life | journal = Scientific American | url = http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=synthetic-life | date = May 2004 | volume = 290 | issue = 5 | page = 75 | doi = 10.1038/scientificamerican0504-75 | bibcode = 2004SciAm.290e..75G | access-date = 2012-12-22 | archive-date = 2012-10-13 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121013161012/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=synthetic-life | url-access = subscription }}</ref> Researchers involved stated that the creation of "true synthetic biochemical life" is relatively close in reach with current technology and cheap compared to the effort needed to place man on the Moon.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3214/01.html |title= NOVA: Artificial life |website= [[PBS]] |date= 18 October 2005 |access-date= 2007-01-19 |archive-date= 2007-01-21 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070121003935/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3214/01.html |url-status= live }}</ref>