In Laboratory, Ordinary Cells Are Turned Into Eggs
My, what interesting times we live in. What are the implications, and which groups are most likely to blow a gasket?
Nifty! Not exactly stunning, but nifty. As for who’s going to be in an uproar, well… it depends on how viable these egg cells turn out to be. If they do, you’ll have the “against nature” group plus the anti-cloning group (because if you can get an egg cell from a man, then use a sperm from him, what do you end up with except a near exact genetic copy?)
It would be easier to make a new genetic individual of either sex from two male parents because you have an x and a y chromosome-
all two female parents could produce is more females
(x chromosomes only)
although this would not be a problem if all you want is female individuals…
Since we it’s a fact that homosexuality is caused by a gene, that gene could be manipulated to be dominant in the baby. They could be sure to have a gay little boy. What a convenience.
Oh? And in the interests of combatting ignorance (the stated purpose of this board), would you be so kind as to detail cites documenting the information you present in that comment?
Thanking you in advance
Not a fact, my friend. Unless you have an inside track.
Oh. And Arcana? You’re a pud.
Only the fine technological points are new. We’ve known for a long time that it was feasible. Valerie Solanas’ SCUM Manifesto, which recommended eliminating the male sex, pointed out in 1971 that “it is now possible to reproduce without men (or, for that matter women)”, perhaps stretching a point both then and now but certainly we know that the possibility exists and that sooner or later we’ll have all the necessary techniques and tools.
Hmm…the male-generated egg could be fertilized and the result implanted into any blood-rich tissue in the abdominal cavity, caesarian to follow a bit later. Any guy wanna be the first XY to be pregnant?
You would still need a normal female egg to insert the male “egg” genetic material into and the same or another female to implant and gestate the embryo.
Even so, using this tecnique to get to human male-male reproduction would requires a long list of “Ifs” to work out just right.
Some expert who was contacted by CNN replied via email something to the effect that “this research means that it might be possible for gay male mice to have a baby”.
We don’t know that homosexuality is caused by a gene. And gene expresion is not the same as dominance. You really shouldn’t throw around big words like dominant if you don’t know what they mean.
Still, and bearing in mind that Arcana is being a putz, it would be interesting to clone gay men and see the incidence of homosexuality in their clones.
Probably medically unethical, but interesting.
Uh…where would the fetus develop?
[cue “Life of Brian” Joke]Where’s the foetus going to gestate? In a box?".
Seriously, there’s no massive problem here. Foetuses gestate outside the uterus in women fairly regularly in ectopic pregancies, even within the abdominal cavity on occasion. So long as the embryo lodges near a major blood vessel it manages to survive. These are normally terminated these days, but in theory they can grow to term and then be delivered via “C-section”.
Some very interesting developments there. I’m a little confused about the possible benefits for lesbian couples, though:
- that seems unnecessary when it has already been shown that it is theoretically easy to create a viable embryo from two eggs.*
Blake - just to clarify: ectopic pregnancies are aborted because if they continued to grow, the mother would die. Ectopic pregnancies are, without exception, fatal to both mother and child, unless surgery is performed. However, if the zygote were implanted intentionally by surgeons, then perhaps a suitable site could be found, where the growing fetus wouldn’t block off any major blood vessels or organs. Hey, it worked for Arnold Schwarzenegger in Junior!
Mentioned here, the pertinent sentence being
Not the best source but all I could find tonight.
Nope. There is ceratianly a risk, but there is no theoretical reason why some ectopic pregancies couldn’t run to term. Most such pregancies are dangerous because they lodge in the fallaopian tubes. However as I said above, some occur in the body cavity itself. With such pregancies there is no reason the embryo couldn’t grow to term. Granted there are serious risks to the mother from septicaemia from the delivery process, but that doesn’t equal “fatal without exception to both parties”.
One serious problem with this idea is the phenomenon of “genomic imprinting.” Basically, imprinting means that genes inherited from your father and genes inherited from your mother are each marked in certain ways, and this in turn affects the way they behave. For example, there are some genetic diseases in which the same exact gene sequence will cause disease if inherited from one parent (say, the father) but not if it was inherited from the other (the mother).
I also question whether maternal effect genes would be an issue. Could a male cell provide the right mRNA and proteins to direct the embryo’s development?
If it were possible for two men to produce an embryo, the sex of offspring would be weighted towards males in a 2:1 ratio:
XX = female
XY = male
YX = male
YY = dead
I have heard or read this several times, and it makes sense to me, but then I wonder why so many women who “cant have children” for a variety of reasons, and transexual females, who want to have children so badly, do not try this procedure.
If it can be done, why isnt it being done?
[ul][li]No, it’s not a fact.[/li][li]How did you get gene manipulation into this?[/li][li]Who says every gay person would only want a gay child?[/ul][/li]
Can’t wait to see the Pit thread you cause. :rolleyes:
Esprix
I can’t for the life of me think of any such diseases. Can you please give me a named example so I can research it. It sounds fascinating, but I suspect that you are misremembering something. I can’t understand by what mechanism such a process could work.
Because it’s only theoretically possible and at present comes with risks that most people wouldn’t take. Even if the mother were prepared to take these risks, I doubt you’d find any doctor prepared to carry out the procedure, for moral as much as legal reasons. However if we have the funding spent on producing viable male X male embryos, then there is no major hurdle involved in ectopic gestation. But we still need that funding and research into the development of appropriate surgical techniques for safe delivery, animal experimentation so we can decide where is best to implant the embryo etc. For transexuals there would also be a need for extensive drug use throughout the pregnancy, since these women can’t produce progesterone and various other hormones.
There are numerous well documented cases of healthy babies delivered from ectopic pregnancies, notably a case several years ago where one twin was ectopic and the other norma,l so there is certainly no problem with the practice in theory. However it still remains risky and normally if an ectopic pregnancy is diagnosed termination is recommended by medical staff. In the case noted above the ectopic pregnancy wasn’t diagnosed until very late because the normally implanted twin apparently masked the location of the other. There are also cases of pro-life women refusing abortion after being diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy and delivering healthy children. Regrettably this remains the exception rather than the rule in these cases. Usually death results for mother and child.
I can’t for the life of me think of any such diseases. Can you please give me a named example so I can research it. It sounds fascinating, but I suspect that you are misremembering something. I can’t understand by what mechanism such a process could work.
Because it’s only theoretically possible and at present comes with risks that most people wouldn’t take. Even if the mother were prepared to take these risks, I doubt you’d find any doctor prepared to carry out the procedure, for moral as much as legal reasons. However if we have the funding spent on producing viable maleXmale embryos, then there is no major hurdle involved in ectopic gestation. But we still need that funding and research into the development of appropriate surgical techniques for safe delivery, animal experimentation so we can decide where is best to implant the embryo etc. For transexuals there would also be a need for extensive drug use throughout the pregnancy, since these women can’t produce progesterone and various other hormones.
There are numerous well documented cases of healthy babies delivered from ectopic pregnancies, notably a case several years ago where one twin was ectopic and the other norma,l so there is certainly no problem with the practice in theory. However it still remains risky and normally if an ectopic pregnancy is diagnosed termination is recommended by medical staff. In the case noted above the ectopic pregnancy wasn’t diagnosed until very late because the normally implanted twin apparently masked the location of the other. There are also cases of pro-life women refusing abortion after being diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy and delivering healthy children. Regrettably this remains the exception rather than the rule in these cases. Usually death results for mother and child.