Extraordinary new medical research indicates that in the future men will be able to conceive and carry their own babies. With minor microbiological ‘tuning” the male body is apparently quite capable of carrying, nourishing and bringing to full term a perfectly healthy infant. The only major difference between a male-hosted pregnancy and that of a female is, obviously, that a male will be unable to give birth. The male pregnancy will be fulfilled by the equivalent of a Caesarian section.
Women will not necessarily be completely dealt out of the equation — the use of a harvested female ovum will still be necessary. However, in future it will be possible to sidestep this part of the process.
About 15 years of research, conducted at the University of North California, have led to what is being described as a major breakthrough. As one researcher has commented: ‘The facts have been staring us in the face and all that was needed was the courage to go ahead and try.”
He added that the new process, ‘had nothing to do with cloning, which would be against the law. All that happens in the laboratory is that the ovum is fertilised in vitro — a so-called test-tube baby — a procedure that has been done for many years now.”
In the standard female pregnancy the tiny blastocyst, formed by a fertilised egg, attaches itself to the inner surface of the woman’s uterus, establishing what becomes the placenta — essentially a life-support system. Through this supply the embryo receives oxygen and nutrients. As it develops into a foetus and a last a fully developed infant, the available maternal blood supply increases. But it must be remembered that the maternal blood is merely a lake into which the foetal blood system dips its roots. In this sense the foetus is entirely independent of the mother. It has its own heart and pumps its own circulation through its own placenta. In this way it also disposes of its waste products like carbon dioxide and other elements. The foetus is, in effect, a parasite, tolerated by the maternal physiology through changes in the ‘hormone orchestra” of the mother. It is believed that the process of birth is triggered by the maternal hormones again readjusting and prompting the maternal system to reject the ‘parasite” baby.
All a placenta really needs is an area of healthy tissue into which it may sink its roots so that they may dip into the host’s blood circulation. Nature does the rest. It is, therefore, entirely possible that the male physiology will support a foetus, so long as it implants at a suitable site, such as a large enough area of posterior or anterior abdominal muscle, which has a healthy blood supply.
In a recent case in South Africa a so-called ectopic pregnancy was brought to full term with the placenta attached to the mother’s liver. Fertilisation had taken place normally, in the mother’s fallopian tubes, but the formed blastocyst had somehow escaped into her abdominal cavity and had implanted on the side of the liver. An abdominal laparotomy had been used to deliver a normal and healthy baby.
When asked whether the male abdomen would be able to accommodate a fully developed infant, a researcher responded humorously: ‘You only have to look at a typical ‘beer-gut’ to realise that the male abdomen could well accommodate triplets.”
After the implantation of a laboratory managed fertilisation of the ovum, the resulting blastocyst is implanted in the male host by means of minimum-invasive surgery — so-called gastroscopy. The male ‘mother” then has to be treated regularly with a mild hormone regimen, which may be taken orally. These hormones beguile the male body into accepting and nurturing what it would otherwise regard as a foreign body.
The first male-carried baby is due for para-Caesarian delivery next month and has been carried attached to the medial sacro-spinalis muscles of the father. The infant is normal in all respects. Ultrasound examination reveals that the foetal growth has been within established parameters, that a normal amniotic sac encloses the baby, which is a perfectly healthy estimated 2,7kg female. The infant was conceived from an ovum harvested from the wife of the male ‘mother”, fertilised with one of his own sperm.
All names and other details are being withheld, including the date of the surgery and the name of the hospital where it will be performed. The same researcher quoted above has said: ‘We don’t want this to become a media circus accompanied by the now obligatory moral and religious caterwauling.”
The research has been welcomed with enthusiasm by various lobby groups, but with reservations being expressed as to the moral and religious implications of the process. The leader of the North California Christian Community, The Reverend David G Mender, has reacted angrily to what he describes as ‘tinkering with God’s creative will”.
However, a spokesperson for the lobby group Mothers of America, Dorothy Greenlimb, welcomed the new research initiatives. ‘It’s time that women were given some relief from the onerous task of producing babies. We’ve been doing it for the species for centuries. Just like occasionally helping by washing dishes, this is something long overdue.”
Inquiries made to the White House have so far been fruitless. — Foreign Medical News Services.