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Distilling the Essence of Motherhood

Biology Wednesday, July 2, 2003 . This is a SciScoop post by Ricky James

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As reported by Steve Connor in the UK Independent, a new phrase is about to be added to our lexicon; the “unwed mother” is about to be joined by the “unborn mother.” Dr. Tal Biron-Shental, a gynecologist from Meir Hospital-Sapir Medical Centre in Kfar Saba, Israel, obtained ovarian tissue from seven aborted fetuses aged between 22 and 33 weeks and managed to keep slices of the ovaries alive for four weeks, long enough for the follicles to develop to the stage when they began to produce the female hormone oestradiol.

“We didn’t have mature oocytes, we had follicles that changed from primordial follicles and survived. We had E2 [oestradiol] secretion which means that we had more secondary follicles which means there was a development,” Dr Biron-Shental said.

Further experimentation may lead to mature egg cells being routinely harvested from aborted fetuses. Experiments with mice have shown that it is possible to mature fetal eggs fully, fertilize them in a test tube, implant them into an adult mouse and produce healthy offspring. Some scientists hope to be able to do the same with human material obtained from aborted fetuses as a replacement for current human egg donors who undergo some significant health risks.

And in years to come, the “mature adult” into which these fertilized eggs may be implanted may not even be a female. As reported by Martin Hutchinson of the BBC, Swedish Professor Mats Brannstrom says that it may even be technically possible one day to transplant a womb into a man and use hormone injections to allow a pregnancy to succeed. He revealed last year that he had transplanted wombs into mice – and produced live baby mice. The procedure of womb transplantation has also been performed in humans, attempted by surgeons in Saudi Arabia. Their success was short-lived – the organ had to removed less than 100 days later when a blood supply failure caused the transplanted tissue to start dying. There was no attempt to start a pregnancy with this patient. But it was a start.

So consider the possibilities. An egg cell removed from an aborted fetus is irradiated and injected with the chromosomes of a male donor, starting a clone that is brought to term inside the same male donor who is also a transplant recipient of a test-tube grown womb started from a cell of his own mother’s womb to lessen rejection complications. A healthy baby is born. Who’s Mom? Could be the next Fox reality TV show…

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6 Responses to Distilling the Essence of Motherhood

gypsysoul

July 2nd, 2003 at 9:18 am

You, RJ, dug deeply to find a topic that would in some faint manner allow placement of AVF’s profound quote for the day. You men.

Actually, most women fantasize about males carrying at least one offspring to term. I’ve never been happier –no sarcasm here– than when I was providing the safest environment (I thought at the time, at least) for my two children, that is, inside the confines of my person. However, most women would love to share with men that joy of feeling life within: ah, the endurance test of morning sickness– and that interval especially close to arrival time when Future, Jr., pummels the walls just to stretch a bit.

Perhaps AVF is young enough to experience that joy one day. :-)

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xanadu

July 2nd, 2003 at 9:25 am

As a Philosopher and Psychologist, this subject is something I have never considered, and it has some interesting implications. I suppose that as a collective society the transformation and acceptance of males as carrying a child for a time seems odd. Especially if we are to look at Darwinian evolution ad the typical biological roles of make and female.

Of course, there is no longer anything “typically” animal about humans anymore. We modify our brains, emotions, moods, bodies… and despite how much of it seemed unheard of just 100 years ago, we think very little of it today.

I always try to keep an open mind when I read about the latest more-radical scientific ideas. Ad far fetched and debatable as they seem, in 20 years they could be the norm. As for me carrying a child, I think I will probably pass on that one. :-)

-Andy

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Anonymous

July 2nd, 2003 at 12:13 pm

For the love of Mike, already! I liked the article on WMDs, but all this insipid whining and pouting in other articles really is making me loose respect for the site. Grow up, get some journalistic integrity, and keep blatant politics out of the body of the articles. I don’t care if your politics influences the choice of the story, but don’t troll right in the article itself. It’s extremely poor taste.

In addition to being poor journalism, the comment at the end of this article was extremely self-indulgent and petulant. If I wanted to read that kind of pap, I’d be on LiveJournal right now reading about someone’s emo collection instead of reading a self-purported science news site. If you have issues with a poster, take it up in the appropriate thread, and least give us the comfortable illusion of an unbiased website.

(And while I’m being a curmudgeon… It’d be nice if I could actually post to this site from Mozilla Firebird without being constantly block by a so-called Form Keys error.)

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Anonymous

July 2nd, 2003 at 12:14 pm

Oh, and defaulting to Auto Format would be a nice idea, too…

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rickyjames

July 2nd, 2003 at 1:00 pm

You’re right, I want this to be a true science news site first and foremost. The power of the press has gone to my head in the past few days to some degree, I admit. My apologies to all for any indulgent poor taste on my part, which I’ve now edited out of the offending story and will strive harder to avoid in the future.

As for Mozilla, that’s a Scoop problem. I’ll look into it.

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Alan Von Fan

July 4th, 2003 at 3:38 pm

…but I have an old head on my shoulders (amazing what you can find just littering the streets), and I know when I’m well off. Especially as any offshoots of my genetic branch are likely to come out with a Marlboro in one hand and a glass of Jack in the other.

Slightly more seriously though, the trend in my family is for increasing height; I am the tallest, seeing my Dad’s 6 feet and three inches, and raising by three. I was fifty centimetres tall at birth and, while I am not as slender as I was ten years back, I’m not sure that there’s room in my pot-belly for a larger model to grow.:) Maybe when I’ve come to terms more with the idea of having kids I’ll be able to take that extra step.

Hey; maybe I’d grow breasts… ;)

Anyway, I’m off to Wales for a week now, so experimentation will just have to wait. Take care y’all.

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