The first disclaimer, which I may not have made clear enough is that while all the necessary technologies for something like this to happen are currently in development or developed, it will still be some time before this becomes commercially available. I won’t dare to make a prediction since many scientists wiser than myself have been completely wrong when it comes to estimating how long it takes for a particular invention to be developed.

That being said, here are links to the journal articles that describe each of the steps I have written about above:

1. Creation of pluripotent stem cells from skin cells:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18035408

2. Creation of sperm from pluripotent stem cells:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16824959

Those are the two major techniques that might allow any cell from a woman to eventually produce a “sperm” cell, capable of fertilizing an egg.

I want to emphasize that they both need a bit more work done before they are perfected/safe for humans. On top of that, there is the good possibility that some sort of ethical debate will lurk its way into the development of this technology.

Syaqina: glad you found this interesting! Price is something that is sort of difficult to estimate, but I can point you in the proper direction. This procedure requires all current procedures used for your typical “in vitro” fertilization cycle, which can cost from $15,000-$50,000 on its own (depending on a number of factors).

On top of the IVF costs, there will be the costs of cellular reprogramming and sperm cell creation. These will likely be even more expensive given that their is probably going to be a lower demand for those. The bottom line: it will be expensive. To summarize how Lucille Bluth put it, these children will spend their inheritance getting here.

I hope I’ve answered your questions, and thanks for reading!