Scientists Create Fatherless Mice

[slinkerwink]

Scientists turn egg cell into surrogate sperm.
22 April 2004
HELEN PEARSON

From time immemorial, making a mammalian baby has involved two essential ingredients: eggs and sperm. Now Japanese scientists have written men out of the reproduction rule-book, and created fatherless mice.

The team made the animals by combining the nucleus of one female's egg with that of another, essentially creating a mouse with two mothers. "It is a bit of a surprise," says evolutionary biologist David Haig of Harvard University, Boston.

After nearly 460 attempts at growing embryos, ten live pups were born and just one of those survived to adulthood. Christened Kaguya, from the story of a girl discovered in a bamboo stump, the mouse is now 14 months old and has babies of her own. She is "very healthy", says team leader Tomohiro Kono of Tokyo University of Agriculture.

Some might say that Kaguya is living proof of men's futility, in the baby-making stakes at least. But scientists maintain it is premature for chaps to step aside in human reproduction: there are significant obstacles to transferring the technique to the fertility clinic.

link:http://www.nature.com/nsu/040419/040419-8.html

Hmmm....so which one of you girls want me to knock you up? ;-)

:evilgrin:

[northzax]

1. wow , there's a mouse in the NBA?

sorry, I saw the 'fatherless' and just assumed that's what they meant.

[slinkerwink]

4. nope...

[GOPisEvil]

2. Eh, you're just trying to make us men obsolete!

I see through this blatant man-hating. :P

[slinkerwink]

3. haha, no, I want to knock my girl up someday

why should straight men have the ability to do that? ;-)

[SarahB]

5. My concern with it would be genetic issues

I would wonder if you'd end up with a child who was XX (girl which would be fine) or an XXX (which is a female infertile herself and mentally retarded). There would be no Y's anymore because only males carry the Y chromosome. But there are some genetic disorders that are gender based which could increase a likelihood of problems.

Interesting concept though if they can work out all the kinks. If I wanted children and were part of a woman-woman pair and all the kinks were worked out medically, I'd do it. It should be no different ethically than any other procedure currently being done. There's still enough people doing things the traditional way that I don't think men will be bred out of existence any time soon.

[slinkerwink]

7. the female mouse that was born is fine, but it does seem that it

took 460 attempts to create a healthy mouse out of that, and she was the only one that survived to adulthood. There's actually a lot more genetic deformities on the Y chromosome, which is why men die a lot sooner than women do.

[LynneSin]

6. Come on, we don't want to rile up the fundies

:eyes:

[slinkerwink]

8. which fundies?

[bloodyjack]

9. oh well, i take it with a grain of salt

the Y chromosome is in the process of deterioration and should be all but extinct in roughly 200,000 years.

to the success of our vile species :toast:

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. Now if women could only get men pregnant....

Hmmmmmmm....;)

[VelmaD]

11. And then run off...

leaving them high and dry.

Wonder how anti-choice the repukes would be then. Bwahahaha.

[slinkerwink]

16. it does bring up very interesting points though...

[ScreamingMeemie]

19. Heheheheh...

That is surely something to think about. :hi:

[NoPasaran]

12. Yeah, but girl mice

still need boy mice to open jars.

[bloodyjack]

13. jars of formaldehyde?

[VelmaD]

14. Good thing us human females...

can open our own jars then. :)

[slinkerwink]

15. exactly----us human females can do everything that men can do

and it looks like we can get girls pregnant too if we use this technology ;-)

[VelmaD]

18. Don't take this the wrong way slink...

but I'm much more concerned with the lack of scientific research into ways to keep from getting pregnant. I don't wanta knock anybody up and would prefer they they not knock me up in return. :)

[slinkerwink]

22. oh.....but...

in my last relationship with my ex, she'd whisper into my ear and say that she wished she could knock me up. <blushes> This technology would probably be time-intensive, laborious, and only for lesbian couples who really want to get pregnant.

[VelmaD]

23. The way I look at it...

there are already tons of kids out there that need good homes. And yes...I think it's a fuckin' travesty that many states won't let willing gay couples adopt.

It isn't anything personal. I have this same attitude about the money poured into technology to help infertile straight couples. I think of the time and money that goes into infertility treatments...and then I think of the kids languishing in orphanages or foster care...and I get irritable. But I acknowledge it's my own personal opinion and I don't expect others to agree with me.

[slinkerwink]

26. I know, and it's mainly the problem with our government that kids

are in orphanages or foster care. For instance, foster parents get paid more and they have four days of respite a month than welfare mothers do. That's monumentally unfair. If welfare or poor mothers would get more supplemental income, and four days of break per month by leaving the children with a caregiver, children and their single mothers would be much better off.

[ScreamingMeemie]

20. Nah...They can just buy cans!

;)

[slinkerwink]

30. I love can openers so much!

[Burma Jones]

17. Oh GREAT, now we men will have nothing better to do than kill each other

Well, of course, I can cook..............

[NoPasaran]

21. Fortunately we're really good at that

and getting better all the time.

[slinkerwink]

24. you could always be our slaves.....

;-) I kid, I kid!

[Burma Jones]

25. What do you mean "could?"

[slinkerwink]

27. for instance in this far-fetched scenario, if men wanted to survive

in a world where their sperm wouldn't be needed any more for procreation, they might offer to step down from their high positions in government, and take on the role of caretakers for the children to ensure the survival of the Y gene. But then, that's a science fiction novel for someone to write. ;-)

[Burma Jones]

28. I thought we were already slaves to our women

tee hee......Actually, I am a slave to my children, of whom only one is female.

[slinkerwink]

29. I bet she has you wrapped around her finger, doesn't she?

I have my dad wrapped around my finger too, but he's an absolute sweetheart! :-)

[Burma Jones]

32. Yep, much to her older brother's chagrin........

[NoPasaran]

31. Mehhhh

Lotta trouble to go to to ensure the survival of a lousy gene or two. I imagine we'd pass. Seeing how badly we've screwed things up, it would probably be for the better.