# WWII virgin birth UL? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 22, 2000, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206 "2000-09-22T22:14:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/1 "2000-09-22T22:14:27Z")
A friend of mine just sent me this. I’ve had a look at snopes and could see nothing. Sounds like a UL to me. Does anybody know anything about it? * * * I just heard on the radio that during WWII, a young woman in Frankfurt was caught in a bombing raid, and slightly injured. A few weeks later she discovered she was pregnant, though a virgin. Eventually she delivered a healthy baby girl. The tests available at the time showed that there was no genetic or blood-type variant within the baby girl’s makeup. The theory is that the woman had been ovulating at the time she was injured, and the trauma of the bombing had triggered cell division within the ovum, thus producing a virgin birth. Both the mother and child wished to remain anonymous, and have done ever since. ---
**Author:** ![Opus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/858c86/32.png) [@Opus1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opus1)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/2 "2000-09-22T22:37:02Z")
I’m no biologist, but don’t sex cells like sperm and ovum only have half the genetic material of a somatic cell? Wouldn’t it then be impossible to have a child using just a single cell, trauma or not? ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/3 "2000-09-22T22:48:01Z")
That’s my understanding of it aswell but doesn’t cloning only use one cell of at least only info. from one animal? I know it’s probably totaly different. While I really don’t believe this story it would be nice to have proof in it’s falsehood. ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/4 "2000-09-22T22:54:58Z")
parthenogenesis. turkeys can do it, why can’t we? haven’t heard of this, but I know Cec has done a column or two about the general subject. lemme go root around for a sec. btw, yes it can be done (theoretically). you’d simply have an XX (female) organism. ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/5 "2000-09-22T23:01:55Z")
[here](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_223.html) and [over here](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/991008.html) over and out. [edited to fix link] [Edited by Chronos on 09-22-2000 at 07:18 PM] ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/6 "2000-09-22T23:03:25Z")
shitters! ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/7 "2000-09-22T23:05:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jb\_farley \* > **. . . turkeys can do it, why can’t we? . . .** Turkeys can drown in a rainstorm, too. Humans aren’t that stu– Nevermind. Got a cite, re: turkeys? I don’t doubt you, just never heard this and would be interested to learn more. Parthenogenesis is, of course, not unheard of–there’s a species of salamander in the U.S. that’s entirely made up of females–but what’s the “highest” (i.e., most complex) animal it happens in with any regularity? And how _does_ such an animal get around the two-sets-of-chromosomes technicality? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/8 "2000-09-22T23:29:08Z")
In nonparthenogenic species, during meiosis, the amount of genetic material is halved, then the two halves in different gametes are brought together. To get parthenogenesis, you simply skip the halving step, or else have the DNA replicate once without cell division after the halving step. I’m about 90% sure turkey’s don’t do it. I don’t think it occurs in anything higher than reptiles. But I may be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/9 "2000-09-22T23:35:43Z")
Smeghead– See the link above; according Cecil, 40% of domestic turkeys do it, or, um, don’t do it, depending on what “it” is. If you know what I mean and I think you do. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/10 "2000-09-22T23:39:01Z")
Thank for that link **b\_farley**. Here is it cleaned up a bit. [Can turkeys reproduce without benefit of sex?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/991008.html) ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/11 "2000-09-22T23:43:52Z")
From the turkey link. > [@](#): > > Useful as virgin birth might be in poultry, it would be even more so in mammals, where you could put the production of grade-A heifers and the like on even more of an assembly line basis than it is > already. So far, however, this goal remains but a distant dream, owing to certain peculiarities of the mammalian genome. Fine by me. Think of all > the delightful aspects of the reproductive process: menstruation, pregnancy, labor. And the part we’re trying to eliminate is sex? Haven’t they just cloned a prize stud bull in the States/Canada? _sigh_ Where’s Cecil when you need him 😉 ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2000, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/12 "2000-09-22T23:55:31Z")
Cloning is not the same thing as spontaneous parthenogenesis. (Quick: name the only pop song to use the word “parthenogenesis” as a rhyme.) ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/13 "2000-09-23T00:02:45Z")
does this involve canned heat? ---
**Author:** ![tsarina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@tsarina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsarina)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/14 "2000-09-23T02:17:59Z")
Cecil said in one of the columns that there was one documented case of parthogenesis in humans. Was that just a crack at the Virgin Mary, or was there no bullshit intended? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/15 "2000-09-23T02:58:50Z")
Problem with this whole concept: In mammals, sex cells only contain half of the genetic information required to make a person. That’s why you can’t clone someone from, say, a semen sample or an egg: Not enough information to get the full genome. All other nucleated cells, like mouth cells or white blood cells, have the full genome inside them. So the OP’s cite, as told, is purest BS. (The sex cell only has half of the required information because the other sex cell has half. Two halves=One whole genome for junior. In other words, the great genetic benefit of sex comes from the mixing of genes into new and more varied patterns. If a single sex cell could create a clone, what’s the point?) ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/16 "2000-09-23T03:01:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tsarina \* > \*\*Cecil said in one of the columns that there was one documented case of parthogenesis in humans. Was that just a crack at the Virgin Mary, or was there no bullshit intended? \*\* Yes, it was a crack at her. Also, there’s a neat UL about a virgin, ca. 1860s, who got impregnated by a bullet that passed through the testicles of a Civil War soldier on its way to her abdomen. ---
**Author:** ![Sue\_Duhnym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@Sue\_Duhnym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Duhnym)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/17 "2000-09-23T03:16:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lissener \* > \*\*(Quick: name the only pop song to use the word “parthenogenesis” as a rhyme.) \*\* I seem to remember a song I had on vinyl, I can’t remember the artist but I DO remember that they weren’t what you would consider ‘pop’. [lyric]Big, black nemesis. Parthenogenesis. Something something something until the dead come home.[/lyric] ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/18 "2000-09-23T03:49:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Montfort \* > Also, there’s a neat UL about a virgin, ca. 1860s, who got impregnated by a bullet that passed through the testicles of a Civil War soldier on its way to her abdomen. Yep, found that at snopes when I was looking for this one. [http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/bulletbl.htm](http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/bulletbl.htm) ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2000, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-virgin-birth-ul/34206/19 "2000-09-23T16:16:30Z")
Like tsarina, I thought Cecil’s mention of human parthenogenesis was a joke about Mary. Does anyone actually have a cite for alleged human parthenogenesis? I don’t believe it exists. [R.O.U.S.es on the other hand…](http://www.rebsig.com/capybara/capy2.jpg)