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Subject:
Conception without sperm
Category: Science > Biology Asked by: ammyma68-ga List Price: $10.00 |
Posted:
01 Mar 2005 12:15 PST
Expires: 31 Mar 2005 12:15 PST Question ID: 483056 |
How far away is our current technology (in terms of years) from using the DNA from two women to conceive a child? How soon before this will be available to the general public and what is the estimated cost of such a procedure? Will this be covered by insurance? |
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There is no answer at this time. |
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Subject:
Re: Conception without sperm
From: williamgunn-ga on 02 Mar 2005 23:54 PST |
If you remembered the story of Dolly, http://www.roslin.ac.uk/public/cloning.html you would know that this is already possible, in principle. Many animals have been cloned by a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer, where instead of DNA coming from sperm, it came from the nucleus of a somatic cell. In the case of Dolly, it was a mammary cell, hence the name Dolly (as in Pardon). The oocyte had its nucleus removed, the somatic nucleus was implanted, and after treatment which included electrical stimulation, the oocyte began to divide and act as if it had been fertilized. Application to humans is still a long way off. Dolly died at a human equivalent age of about 40-45. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2764039.stm It's not clear if she just got sick from natural causes or if the cloning process predisposed her to disease, but the evidence suggests that she simply got sick. That said, most cloning attempts fail, resulting in non-viable embryos, so something is going wrong. Of course, most in vitro fertilizations fail as well. Even in vivo fertilizations, i.e. like they do it on the discovery channel, don't have a perfect track record. There is only one group that was seriously attempting to develop the technology to allow reproduction to occur despite infertility, and that was Panayiotis Zavos's group. http://www.zavos.org I haven't heard anything from them in years. It's illegal in many countries including the U.S. and the U.K. So it's not in the forseeable future, and in the current legislative climate, I can't even make a guess as to how long until it will be available. If it were available and legal now, it whouldn't be substantially more expensive than IVF, and would fall into the same insurance category. |
Subject:
Re: Conception without sperm
From: bioboy2000-ga on 05 Mar 2005 12:31 PST |
This can't happen. The reason is because of genetic imprinting. Basically, when DNA is replicated it is also methylated in a specific pattern. Cells can read this methylation pattern and will abort a pregnancy if the methylation patterns are both from females and or males. What williamgunn-ga is referring to in his answer is cloning. This is taking DNA from a somatic cell (2 copies of the genome) rather than combining two sets of a genome from 2 different gametes (1 copy of genome). That isn't the same thing as what you are referring to. Hope this helps. |
Subject:
Re: Conception without sperm
From: feuerbach-ga on 21 Mar 2005 11:37 PST |
Despite technological advances, you won't be able to do this in your lifetime for sure. Why? First, the idea is only somewhat possible. To perform this procedure, a doctor would simply replicate the DNA contained in sperm cells. So even if you don't technically have a male interacting or donating, you have the replication of a man. This all goes back to X and Y chromosomes. Second, and the more important reason this won't happen in your lifetime, is that scientists involved in cloning and biogenetic construction are not concerned with letting two males or two females procreate in this way. There are far more important items that our attention can be focused on. Lastly, even if the technology were to exist, the US government would find a way to ban this procedure throughout the entire world--just like partial birth abortions. |
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