Dr White

Same-sex births about to become a reality?

By Dr White

 


Same sex can have a baby What is the principle?

The reproductive patterns of mammals, whether human or mouse, are similar.

The father contributes "half a set" of genetic material through the sperm, and the mother contributes "half a set" through the egg, so that the baby can develop healthily.

But theoretically, no matter what method is used, as long as a whole set of genetic material can be assembled in the embryo, there is a theoretical possibility of developing a baby.

One of the simplest ideas is that of parthenogenesis

Only Mom can make babies" is more common in non-mammals.
The picture shows aphids, some of which reproduce in isolation.

To be precise, parthenogenesis and it occurs regardless of the presence of hermaphroditic mating, as long as the offspring carry only a single genome. However, unisexual reproduction in nature is mainly solitary, and only one species of ants in the Americas has both solitary and solitary male reproduction.

Imagine a woman being able to produce eggs, wouldn't it be possible to obtain a complete embryo by adding half a set of genetic material to a ready-made egg?

In 2004, a team of researchers at the University of Tokyo used two oocytes from a female mouse to produce the world's first examples of solitary mammalian reproduction.


Today, it is possible to have a baby with just one or two moms. So, can you have a baby with just one or two dads?

Two men having a baby Not far from the realization

Even with the help of technology, two dads to make a baby, or far more difficult than two moms. Why?

The main problem lies in a mechanism called Genomic imprinting

Genomic imprinting is unique to mammals. It requires that the baby must have genes from both mom and dad in order to be born healthy, otherwise it will be born dead. In the case of "girl-girl" mice, the imprinted genes have to be removed in advance through gene editing techniques.

In dioecious reproduction, the number of imprinted genes that need to be knocked out is even greater and more difficult. The Y chromosome, which is unique to mammalian males, can also interfere with it.

Recently, Hayashi Katsuhiko, a Japanese academic doing stem cell research, made a big news.

Katsuhiko Hayashi's team used the somatic cells of male mice to artificially create egg cells, allowing two mouse fathers to have seven babies, and the babies are still healthy. Some of the results have been published in the journals Science and Nature.


However, although the team has bred embryos containing the genetic material of the two dads, but there is no way to get male mice pregnant, or use an artificial womb instead.

In other words, two mouse dads give birth to a baby, and currently ...... no mom or not.

If humans could have children of the same sex What would happen?

With the current state of technology, the probability of surviving "same-sex reproduction" in mice is too low.

Even if they make it to birth, most of them will die quickly due to congenital diseases.

Secondly, on an ethical and legal level, the technology is controversial and is mixed with many discussions about gene editing, women's rights, family values, etc.

For example, so far, two rat dads have had to find another rat mother surrogate to have a baby. Putting it on a human, will this make the gray industry grow stronger and damage women's vital interests?

In order to avoid the effects of 'genomic imprinting', artificial same-sex reproduction requires genetic editing of mouse cells. What would happen if these techniques were used to modify human embryos?

Scientific progress has brought more choices and more risks to mankind, and new technologies in the biological field have often impacted existing ethics and morality. We believe that humans, as a species, must be wise enough to meet these challenges.

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