9.01.2007
How long did Kaguya live?
Most lab mice live two years, if they are not killed in an experiment. Kaguya would be almost three and a half now (she was born in early 2004) so Kaguya, the first animal with two parents of the same sex, has probably died by now. There were no follow up stories on her lifespan, we only know that she survived to adulthood and had a litter, which usually happens at about 50 days. Did she make it two years? How are her children doing? Did anyone ever repeat the experiment, in mice or other animals?
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3 comments:
I have no idea if Kaguya is still alive or not Mr. Howard. I assume she is seeing as how she was PERFECTLY healthy and JUST like every other kind of female mouse with the INCREDIBLE exception that she came from TWO SAME SEX PARTNERS! The fact that it took over 400 embryonic attempts to produce Kaguya does'nt mean that this research needs to stop it simply means that female/female procreation is not as easy to accomplish as say...male/male procreation will assumedly be. Please bear in mind Mr. Howard that this is a fairly new area of fertility research(at least to the best of my knowledge) which shows HUGE potential for same sex couples to conceive their own children, not to mention leveling the hetero "majority" playing field which, ultimately, is what has the right wingers all up in a huff.
The researchers never said she was "PERFECTLY healthy", in fact if you read the National Geographic article, you'd see this:
"Imprinting is pretty complicated," said Randy Jirtle, a geneticist specializing in imprinting at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Genes can be imprinted in some tissues but not others. It can also vary from species to species.
There are about 80 to 90 known imprinted genes in mice. Those involved in cognitive processes or nurturing behavior may not have been properly imprinted in Kaguya. These effects may not be obvious just from studying this one mouse.
"There is no doubt that this result is amazing," Jirtle added. "But just because this mouse is walking around on the Earth does not mean that the animal is normal."
What's more, there is no guarantee that what worked in mice will work in humans.
Producing a mouse from two eggs is a very risky and very inefficient procedure—only two embryos survived of 371 that were implanted in surrogate mothers.
"The success rate is less than 1 percent—who knows what went wrong with the other 99 percent," Lam said. "Like cloning, it would be completely unethical to try such experiments in humans."
Why do you assume that male/male will be? And are you arguing that couples using sperm donors or egg donors or adopting a child are not fully satisfied with that arrangement? I can't believe that, and I can't believe that any same-sex couple would feel so strongly that they need bio-related children that they would subject their children to such huge risks of genetic defects. There are children that need adoption, and there are children that can't get basic health care - this research is totally offensive on so many levels. And making this a higher priority than achieving equal protections through civil unions is offensive also, there are same-sex couples that need and deserve equal protections right now, but you would rather insist on a right to attempt this? It's insane.
Ahhhh...but dear Mr. Howard first off I know VERY little about this supposed "geneticist" Randy Jirtle now do I? Is he/she a religious fundamentalist? An extreme social conservative? Or just a typical nervous, paranoid hetero? LOL! This research is ONLY in its INFANCY Mr. Howard. Give it time, baby. Give it time. SSP between males will probably be a lot easier as men contain both X and Y chromosomes so one male partner could produce a "male" egg cell whilst the other partner produces a male sperm cell. Females only contain double X chromosomes so their particular style of SSP would by its very nature be a wee bit more complicated, but NOT impossible.
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