Well, yes, I see what you mean.

But to tell you the truth I was not speaking about humans, as obviously it's a rather complex matter. WHat I meant is "starting life from scratch", take the simplest life-form and try to reproduce it with synthetical substances - or was this done? The last I heard about the matter, the scientists were not able to spot how organic matter from prehistoric oceans made the leap to living forms. WHen you said "take the ovum" - well, this means you borrow a living cell. But if I'm not mistaken - correct me if this is not so, - so far a synthetic - purely synthetic - living cell or a primary life-form has not been reproduced? Why? If matter is all that is needed, then putting the molecules found in a living form together in a certain way should let one to obtain a living organism of his own creation?