2.12.2008

New pro-ssp website

There's a new website pushing for same-sex procreation out there, appropriately called www.SameSexProcreation.com. There are lots and lots of links there, including a really good section on epigenetics and the research going on to determine all the sex-determined imprinted genes.

The author believes that SSP should be developed mainly to force SSM to be accepted, on the theory that everyone will drop their objections to SSM once procreation is possible. It is a reasonable theory, since many people argue that SSM should not be allowed since procreation is not possible, but the more likely conclusion is that SSP will be oppposed for all the other reasons they oppose SSM. We reach the same conclusion that if SSP is allowed, then SSM should be allowed also, but we differ on whether SSP should be allowed.

2.02.2008

Sperm created from female stem cells

Well, they're right on schedule in Britian, where they have "coaxed" female stem cells to develop into sperm cells. In England, apparently there is a law against using gametes derived from stem cells, and that article says that "the UK parliament is now debating changes to the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, and the government is under pressure to include an amendment that would allow the future use of eggs and sperm grown in the lab from stem cells. However, a clause added to this amendment would restrict this to sperm from genetic males and eggs from genetic females." The reason to do that is because converting it to the other gender's gamete requires genetic engineering to reverse the imprinting, and would not be restorative medicine that justifies attempting it.

In America, there is no such law, except in Missouri, where implanting such an embryo is illegal. It would be legal to try this today in Massachusetts and 48 other states.

It is now clear that the words "sperm" and "egg" are going to be used to refer cells that merely act and look like sperm and eggs, whether they come from a male or female won't matter. So, the "Hole In The Massachusetts Egg And Sperm Law" I wrote about last week is definitely there, and surely intentional. I will not bother to change the name of this blog, or of the Egg and Sperm Compromise, because I feel it still conveys the spirit of requiring a man and a woman's gametes. But now I will have to make clear that the "Egg and Sperm Law" is actually a "sperm of a man and egg of a woman law".