Virgin birth: do we really need sex?
Frank Swain says: “Pregnancy without a man is much more common in nature than we think. So what stops people from doing the same?
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Singer Tammy Wynette once said that being a woman is very difficult. Nature has decided that it is not enough for representatives of the weaker half to perform complex reproductive functions, so the offspring need a male. Women have limited time to have children.
If women could give birth without the participation of men, perhaps everything would be much simpler. It is important to note that not all organisms are obsessed with sex. According to New Scientist, virgin conception is a common occurrence in nature. The females of some animals, such as sharks and lizards, reproduce without attracting males. This process is known as monogenesis. It is now clear that this phenomenon is observed in nature much more often than expected.
A BBC journalist wondered whether it was possible to study a biological trick that allows women to conceive a child on their own without the participation of a man.
It is clear that without male seed, conception would be impossible. However, not under all circumstances a man can be a sperm donor. About ten years ago, Japanese scientists created a mouse with two mothers and no father. She was named Kaguya, after the mythical moon princess who was born on a bamboo stalk. The mouse was created in the laboratory by combining the genetic material of several female mice.
With little effort, stem cells obtained from female donors can be turned into sperm. Under natural conditions this never happens. It is now possible to create a child from two mothers, each providing half the genetic material.
It”s not as simple as it seems, says Dr Alan Pacey, a reproductive biologist at the University of Sheffield. According to him, scientists can create something that resembles a sperm under a microscope. At the same time, there is no fact that this something has the same program code as the human seed. This fact is extremely difficult to establish. Dr. Pacey doesn”t know if there is a way to test how artificial human seeds work. Observations can be made on mice and rats. However, according to the scientist, the ability to do this in humans is a big step forward.
Features of single pregnancy
Even if researchers could eliminate the barriers to conception associated with the need for semen, partners are still needed.
Read also: Why casual sex is necessary and what is it?
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In the wild, many females resort to monogamy only when necessary. Typically, they are isolated from males. For example, if several female Komodo dragons land on a virgin island, they will give birth to males themselves and start a new colony. Similar monogenetic reproduction is observed in sharks. Some females in aquariums without males have become pregnant for unexplained reasons.
Animal studies are currently underway. According to Paisiy, many of them do not reproduce asexually. Such a spread is evolutionarily disadvantageous due to the possible loss of genetic diversity, which maintains the health of the population. It”s theoretically possible to produce children in a laboratory from a single woman”s genetic material. However, the cost of such a step in the future will be very high—it”s a genetic bottleneck that”s cause for concern.
Sex and pregnancy—what to expect? The myth of labor induction.
Sex and pregnancy — what to expect? myth about inducing labor.
Just as inbreeding reduces the genetic diversity of a population, self-fertilization reduces it in the resulting offspring. If you choose to reproduce without involving individuals of the opposite sex, your child will have only one parent. Therefore, they will receive only half the genetic diversity available to a normal child.
Genetic time bomb
If a woman is serious about not reproducing sexually, then it is reasonable to set aside certain genetic material in the form of master copies. This female”s offspring can then use it to replenish a variety that will be lost in subsequent generations. Such a move would greatly confuse family trees.
Unfortunately, we only warn that the described workaround is inevitable. You must accept the idea that the concept of the virgin birth results in the disappearance of genetic diversity in future offspring. I”m reminded of a Tammy Wynette song called “Stand By Your Man.” The singer”s views may be outdated, but her reproductive advice is very common.
Virgin, childbirth, sex
Virgin, childbirth, sex
