The Prospect of All-Female Conception

The prospect of all-female conception
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 13 April 2007

Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today.
Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman's bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible to produce rudimentary sperm cells from male bone-marrow tissue.

The researchers said they had already produced early sperm cells from bone-marrow tissue taken from men. They believe the findings show that it may be possible to restore fertility to men who cannot naturally produce their own sperm.

But the results also raise the prospect of being able to take bone-marrow tissue from women and coaxing the stem cells within the female tissue to develop into sperm cells, said Professor Karim Nayernia of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Creating sperm from women would mean they would only be able to produce daughters because the Y chromosome of male sperm would still be needed to produce sons. The latest research brings the prospect of female-only conception a step closer.

"Theoretically is it possible," Professor Nayernia said. "The problem is whether the sperm cells are functional or not. I don't think there is an ethical barrier, so long as it's safe. We are in the process of applying for ethical approval. We are preparing now to apply to use the existing bone marrow stem cell bank here in Newcastle. We need permission from the patient who supplied the bone marrow, the ethics committee and the hospital itself."

If sperm cells can be developed from female bone-marrow tissue they will be matured in the laboratory and tested for their ability to penetrate the outer "shell" of a hamster's egg - a standard fertility test for sperm.

"We want to test the functionality of any male and female sperm that is made by this way," Professor Nayernia said. But he said there was no intention at this stage to produce female sperm that would be used to fertilise a human egg, a move that would require the approval of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

The immediate aim is to see if female bone marrow can be lured into developing into the stem cells that can make sperm cells. The ultimate aim is to discover if these secondary stem cells can then be made into other useful tissues of the body, he said.

The latest findings, published in the journal Reproduction: Gamete Biology, show that male bone marrow can be used to make the early "spermatagonial" stem cells that normally mature into fully developed sperm cells.

"Our next goal is to see if we can get the spermatagonial stem cells to progress to mature sperm in the laboratory and this should take around three to five years of experiments," Professor Nayernia said.

Last year, Professor Nayernia led scientists at the University of Gottingen in Germany who became the first to produce viable artificial sperm from mouse embryonic stem cells, which were used to produce seven live offspring.

His latest work on stem cells derived from human bone marrow suggests that it could be possible to develop the techniques to help men who cannot produce their own sperm naturally.
"We're very excited about this discovery, particularly as our earlier work in mice suggests that we could develop this work even further," Professor Nayernia said.

Whether the scientists will ever be able to develop the techniques to help real patients - male or female - will depend on future legislation that the Government is preparing as a replacement to the existing Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.

A White Paper on genetics suggested that artificial gametes produced from the ordinary "somatic" tissue of the body may be banned from being used to fertilise human eggs by in vitro fertilisation.

via The Independent
(http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2444462.ece)

I should be doing homework, but this is way more constructive.

In my attempt to delay studying further, I found this photo and thought I'd share it...for those who don't know Spanish its translates "My body is mine."

In other randomness, lately Ive heard on three separate occasions an appeal to the idea that you can be too politically correct. I don't know if this is a broadly held view or if it even holds any merit. Where is this logic coming from? Is it only coming from the mouths of those who embody the very notion of white heteronormative privilege....those who see 'political correctness' as some kind of burden? Does it stem out of corrosive and utterly ABSURD/FALSE idea that we are in some sort of post-feminist movement or post-civil rights movement moment?

I just googled, 'too politically correct' and the 4th website listed was a DI article from Feb 20th 2007 about the racist mascot which i wont even go into on this post....aside from being complete and utter bullshit, I think it does a little to illustrate where my ruminations are coming from...(http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/storage/paper736/news/2007/02/20/Letters/Becoming.Too.Politically.Correct-2729843.shtml).

Right now, Im leaning toward the notion that the ones who use this argument that you can be too politically correct are the ones who need to readjust their focus and look through more than just the lens of privileged ignorance. I want to get into this more, but my brain hurts and I gotta study.

Holler.

ps: Coalition Against Coke Contracts is doing a phone bombing to the chancellor tomorrow to remind him that the UIUC community doesnt want Coke on campus. If you want to make a call the number is 217 333 6290. Drop him a line about your concern about the unversity's silence about the matter and about how you aren't down with corporations that put profit over sustainability and safety...something alone those lines.

pps: The GEO is also having open office hours either on the Quad or in the Union, I think from 11-1 tomorrow. So if you wanna show a little love over there, I bet theyd appreciate it.

Some opening thoughts

hey all. =)

as this is my first post, just wanted to kick it off with a couple questions:

first, have any of you heard anything about the book entitled Pinay Power: Peminist Critical Theory ? (or the term "Peminism" in general?

ive been feelin some Filipino love burning in the ol' soul lately, so i did a little search on Amazon, and came up with this gem.

the folks at Amazon describe it as :

a collection of peminist (Filipina American feminist) cultural criticism by and about Filipina/Americans. Featuring essays by scholars and writers in the fields of decolonization, globalization, and transnationalism, this volume brings together for the first time critical work by Pinays of different generations and varying political and personal perspectives to chart the history of the Filipina experience. This groundbreaking collection serves as an antidote to the overly patriarchal and cultural nationalist stance of both Filipino American and Asian American scholarship and is an important corrective to the erasure and invisibility of Filipina American voices. This is an essential collection for scholars and writers concerned with cultural and political activism, particularly in literary, Asian American, and women's studies.

So...I'm extremely intrigued because the use of the letter "P" in place of "F" in Peminist comes across as poking fun at the inability of many Filipino/ newly immigrated Filipino-Americans to pronounce f's, yet it is used in the title of an anthology that is supposed to be putting forth some serious arguments. Huh. Maybe it's not poking fun/derogatory, so much as reclaiming it, a la "Cunt." ?

Anyway, just wondering if by chance one of you have heard the book mentioned in any GWS classes or organizations and could give me insight before I track it down and dive in.

Question two: have you all heard anything about the recent episode of America's Top Model called "Beautiful Corpes" that featured models posing as victims of crime scenes? It really was atrocious, but the good news is, it's under a lot of heat and has even found its way into the national (and world) media. I caught a few minutes of it while one of my roomates was watching, and the sad part is, I didn't quite realize how offended/shocked i should have been until i heard a feature on it on CNN a couple of days later. I guess I just somehow chalked it up to ridiculous shenanigans of American Reality TV when in fact it's much more serious than that. It reveals a lot of scary realities about our society that a project at this level of misogynism made it all the way past the planning stages and was actually implemented and broadcast nationwide.

here are the actual photos from the episode...SERIOUSLY, check out the images and the commentary by Tyra and Co. it is appalling.
http://www.zap2it.com/news/custom/photogallery/zap-photogallery-antm8-crimescenevictims,0,698280.photogallery?coll=zap-photogalleries&index=1

and here's a link to the women's blog that did an impressive job at generating widespread attention to the show: yay for that!
http://www.wimnonline.org/WIMNsVoicesBlog/?p=467

i hope you all are enjoying your weekend.

-- jo