Could a woman have a dog embryo implanted in her womb and give birth to a dog? I would assume the woman would have to take drugs to keep her body from attacking the embryo? What else would be involved? Is there any chance that this could work?
I nominate this the weirdest question I’ve seen asked this month.
You think the question is weird? I am asking because a woman I know actually wants to give birth to a dog.
Oh, I could use an answer to that one! My dog goes to work with me. (I teach English to Korean kids.) I always tell them that he is my son and I’m his mommy. Well, kids being kids, they are not sure whether or not to believe me, especially as they think foreigners are weird anyway. I’ve had lower level kids act out giving birth to ask me if I had actually given birth to him. I always say, “yes”. Many believe me. Heck, in this country, they believe that if you sleep with the fan on and the doors and the windows closed, you will die! There are also news reports of infants and small children dying from inhaling too much dog hair or cat hair from the family pet. They say that the lungs get clogged with the hair and that many of the hairs actually pierce the lungs.
JejuLife, what kind of dog?
And exactly why does she want to give birth to a dog? Isn’t picking one up from the pound easier?
Because she loves her dogs and wants to give birth to one.
Words fail me.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say no, it’s not possible.
A mother and fetus share their circulatory systems. People cannot live on dog blood, and I doubt dogs can live on people blood. I don’t think the embryo would form into puppies, even if you got it successfully implanted and the mother’s immune system did not reject it.
Only if she’s a real bitch.
[sub][sup]well, somebody had to say it [/sup][/sub]
Monkey Maybe?
There is no difference in “people” blood and “doggie” blood, AFAIK. The problem would be rejection of foreign antigens. If that weren’t a problem, I don’t think either would have any problem transporting oxygen.
Under absolutely insane conditions, it may be possible. No rejection of foreign tissue or antigens, perfect connection of fetus to mother (it would be easier to simply cut out a partially developed human fetus and connect the umbilical to the dog’s umbilical) and a small race of dog. You’d have to have a Caesarian, too.
I’m an ecologist, so this isn’t my area really, but the above should be fairly accurate.
A dog fetus would require different nutrients, hormones, etc., at different levels and at different stages of developement than a human fetus. Even if the woman’s body was prevented from rejected the dog egg, the fetus wouldn’t develop properly.
Under my insane conditions, those would be provided for, possibly by doping.
Suppose you agree that she can’t actually give birth to a dog, but that she can have the right to give birth to a dog.
Its her right as a woman to be able to give birth to a dog.
Hey, are you the Dog’s Front of Judea?
Hasnt any ever tried this? (they must have)
I dont mean a dog in a woman - but havent scientists tried to put a cat egg/fetus in a dog, or a chimp fetus in an ape, or a donkey fetus in a mare, or whatever?
Some one must have tried with other animals, what were the results?
He’s part Maltese, part Bichon, and part Pit Bull (though that part is entirely in his head).
It wouldn’t work.
Maintaining a pregnancy requires a complex interplay of endocrine (via the blood stream) and paracrine (local) hormones and signal factors. These are not identical in dogs and humans. They would probably have some degree of cross-activity, but would not affect all receptors equally (e.g. a dog hormone may have 40% of the effect of human hormone in one tissue, but 0%, 80% and 150% in others). Also, metabolic (breakdown) products of our homones also have essential hormone effects (sometimes greater than the original hormone) A slightly different dog hormone would not react precisely the same with our biochemistry (a single atom or bond often makes a great difference in activity and action)
Even with all sorts of constant monitoring and supplementary hormones, we would essentially have no chance of getting the balance right. The impact of the mother’s biochemistry a much more complex task of bringing a dog fetus to full development in a “artificial womb” (where we would have more control over conditions) and we’re quite far from being able to make a genuine artificial womb.
Indeed, this procedure has the potential to join the early “cyclic” blood transfusions (made before we understood blood types) as a procedure with up to a 200% fatality rate (In early transfusions, blood flowed both ways, so sometimes both the donor and recipient died. ) In fact, since dogs have litters, this particular trans-specific procedure could have a fatality rate of 1,000% or more!
Having said that, we have successfully carried trans-specific pregnancies to term in related species. The first was three years ago, when a rare species of ox called an Asian Gaur was cloned and gestated in a domestic cow. However, in this case, a gaur cell had been cloned into a denucleated cow ovum (a cow’s egg, with all the cow DNA removed) This may have helped greatly with implantation, etc, because the initial ovum had all the chemicals and enzymes needed to implant in a cow womb.
Dogs and humans aren’t nearly as closely related.
The Dog’s Front of Judea…Splitters!