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Can a person theoretically have two biological mothers with modern technology?


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Posted

Something I was thinking about the other day. With our advances in the fields of in vitro fertilization and cellular manipulation, is it theoretically possible that we could, for lack of a better term, ‘engineer’ a person so that they literally have two biological mothers and no father per se? I’m not talking about in the sense of one woman providing the egg and the second woman providing the womb to carry it, though of course they could do that as well I suppose. Obviously in that case, only one of them would truly be their biological mother in the genetic sense (to be clear, I’m not making any sort of normative or judgmental claim here, I’m merely illustrating the thing I’m asking here. Nothing at all against that). I’m talking about a situation in which a female embryo is created which has one X-chromosome from one mother and the other X-chromosome from the second mother, whether by modifying/creating a sperm/sperm analog somehow to have the X-chromosome of one of them, or by some other means. 

Is this something we are currently capable of achieving, legal and ethical issues set aside for the sake of argument, since I suspect that this would probably fall into the same gray area as human cloning would. It seems to me that in principle at least it should be possible. Though whether we’re at the point that we could even contemplate making the attempt, I’m not sure.

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Yes. They have been able to make "male eggs" and "female sperm". Though they have only been allowed to go through with mice. It would be good to see it done with human beings. The ethics behind this case aren't blurry, it's a case of people gatekeeping opportunities out of redundant fear.

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