Archive for the ‘Pregnancy’ Category
Here’s a question for your Friday consideration: Should science work toward modifying males so that they can give birth?
It’s actually not as ridiculous as it sounds; PZ Myers over at Pharyngula has a nice post up about some of the particulars of such a concept:
Zygotes are aggressive little parasites that will implant just about anywhere in the coelom — it’s why ectopic pregnancies are a serious problem — so all we need to do there is culture a bit of highly vascularized tissue in the male abdomen that will serve as a secure home for a few months. We’ll have to play some endocrine games, too, which may effect his love life but will also prepare him to lactate post-partum. There’s the minor anatomical problem that the vagina is a unique tissue, and no, the urethra is not homologous or analogous (fortunately; we wouldn’t want to have to push an 8 pound baby through the penis, even if female hyenas can manage it) — but that’s what c-sections are for. Given money, time, and a few weird volunteers, it could be done.
I probably have more radical views on gender and “nature” than the average person (in other words, I think gender is a social construct and “nature” is a vague term thrown around to help reinforce strict gender roles), but I don’t actually see a downside to science giving men the option to get pregnant and have babies. It’s the getting there that will be shaky and ethically iffy (that whole finding human volunteers thing could pose a real obstacle), but it’s possible that such a revolutionary event could happen in the next few decades.
