Making babies without men

[BurtWorm]

Very interesting development, so to speak...

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2444462.ece

By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 13 April 2007

Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today.

Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman's bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible to produce rudimentary sperm cells from male bone-marrow tissue.

The researchers said they had already produced early sperm cells from bone-marrow tissue taken from men. They believe the findings show that it may be possible to restore fertility to men who cannot naturally produce their own sperm.

But the results also raise the prospect of being able to take bone-marrow tissue from women and coaxing the stem cells within the female tissue to develop into sperm cells, said Professor Karim Nayernia of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Creating sperm from women would mean they would only be able to produce daughters because the Y chromosome of male sperm would still be needed to produce sons. The latest research brings the prospect of female-only conception a step closer.

"Theoretically is it possible," Professor Nayernia said...

[nykym]

1. What had god wroth

Oh My I can hear the footsteps of the religous right as I type this reply.

[BurtWorm]

2. Mos def

It promises to be a most spectacular fireworks display.

:popcorn:



(Welcome to DU, by the way :toast: )

[newyawker99]

16. Hi nykym!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[rfranklin]

3. We should clone them onto eagle DNA and we could fly!

Cleaning all those feathers might be a pain, however.

[plcdude]

4. Well our last

reason for existence is now threatened. But who will they blame for not taking out the garbage?

[VWolf]

12. LOL

... or leaving the toilet seat up?

[soothsayer]

5. this dawned on me in high school in the 70's --- simple to take the genetic

info out of one egg and put it into another! then many years later they did it with mice. Same amount of genes in a sperm as in an egg, so easy peasy. so I don't know why on earth they are trying to go this long route to do it. I don't know a single lesbian who wants to produce sperm, lol.

[Daedelus76]

6. humans as ant colony

...all females. Does make for interesting sci-fi stuff.

[Tesha]

11. It's been done. As far back as at least 1915.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herland_%28novel%29

"Herland is a utopian novel from 1915, written by feminist
Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The book describes an isolated
society comprised entirely of Aryan women who reproduce
via parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction). The result
is an ideal social order, free of war, conflict and domination."

<more>

Here's the complete E-text:

http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=GilHerl.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all


Or at Project Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/32


Meanwhile, Sheri S. Tepper's much-more-recent novel
Gibbon's Decline and Fall also explores similar themes.

http://www.amazon.com/Gibbons-Decline-Fall-Sheri-Tepper/dp/0553573985

Tesha

[jumpoffdaplanet]

7. So the fundies will lose their one excuse...

the deny gay marriage, at least for lesbians!

And if they can made sperm, I'll bet it's only a matter of time before eggs can be created. And gay men will be able to make babies together too.

I hope fundies heads are exploding everywhere.

[rurallib]

8. Suddenly I feel so superfluous.

About the only thing I was ever good at.
That and watching four football games at once on TV.

[kestrel91316]

9. Parthenogenesis DOES occur in nature................

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. I wonder what people will say...

when we start making babies without women.

[valerief]

13. Back in '85 I read an article about how fertilized eggs could be

attached to a man's intestines. From the intestines, it could get enough nutrition to develop and the baby could be born Caesarian. Of course, the man ran the risk of hemorrhaging. And, of course, he'd most likely get a 1/3 cut in pay and be forced to do all the housework.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. Artificial wombs.

Scientists have been developing artificial wombs for use in researching various fetal and embryonic development.

Theoretically, it'd be concievable to have a "test tube baby" that's really a test tube baby.

[Tesha]

14. "Oh Brave New World, that has such people in it!" (NT)

[Daedelus76]

17. shake 'n' bake babies?

Would a society of genderless clones have any benefits or drawbacks? I guess the society wouldn't be exactly "human" in the traditional sense.

Star Trek villified them, but I think the Borg are something like humanity's future, at least a very likely outcome. Perhaps not so ugly and hideous, but something like that. Geneticly modified, cyberneticly enhanced, neurochemically controlled. Society in many ways already is progressing towards a hive, a machine, and we are becomming more dependent on both medical and information technologies.

[maxsolomon]

18. sounds like a lot of fun

:eyes:

i think most (straight) women know how boring it would be without men. an entire planet of lesbian bed death.

face it: we're hilarious!

[guitar man]

19. Oh no!

we're screwn!! or not, this is confusing :crazy:

[Kopterman]

20. Well, at least...

We are still useful for opening jars.

[Clark2008]

21. Well, that wouldn't be very fun, now, would it?

I, for one, LIKED making my baby with my man. :evilgrin:

(Note: Responding to the headline - not the story).

[Solly Mack]

22. Interesting

:D

[FVZA_Colonel]

23. Why am I thinking that this is only a prelude to a real life Y: The Last Man?

Bruce K. Vaughan was truly a visionary.

[eppur_se_muova]

24. One step closer to separating the purely reproductive aspects of sex...

from the hormonal drives, so people are brought into this world only by careful planning, not lack of planning.

Someday, sterility will be a matter of choice, and women will choose fertility only when they want children. Then sex will be about love, or fun, or maybe performance art, but no one will have to worry about getting "knocked up" by mistake, inattention, or rape.

[RC Quake]

25. Sorry, there are too many women already

that can't make babies WITH men. Let's concentrate on them first. JMO.

[riverdeep]

26. Sure, it sounds like science fiction

today, but so did invitrofertilization, or sperm banks. These developments, and more, will happen-if we don't extinguish ourselves.

One thing though, conceptualizing a woman as 'an oven' say, is not really accurate. This implies it's like a loaf that will turn out the same regardless of oven. Once you implant an egg into a woman, some of that woman's imprint is on that baby forever, even if it is not her own genetic material. The substitute mother supplies, among other things, hormones that affect fetal development. Some scientists think hormonal influence on the fetus contributes to homosexuality. Regardless, it has big implications. Implant the egg in another woman, and the baby turns out different. This is why artificial wombs are a very complex thing to achieve.