Re: Parenting for the spermatozoically-challenged (more info.)

Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@calweb.com)
Thu, 17 Jul 1997 01:59:17 -0700 (PDT)

> >There will, I believe, come a point in my life when I choose to raise a
> >child with a (female) partner of my choice; and it is highly likely that
> >she will bear the child. This being the case, and my being
> >spermatozoically-challenged (the current PC phrase, I suspect), does anyone
> >have any hard facts about the possibility of my genes being used to replace
> >those in the sperm of an anonymous donor, resulting in a child of which I
> >am a true parent?
>
> I should add to this that any material from my body cannot come from an
> ovum, it must come from a normal cell.

If you have no ova, then the likelihood of you and a female partner
parenting a child is not likely in the near future. Cloning you
entirely is probably within reach, next will come the ability for
two ova to fertilize each other (say your partner and your mother
or sister). But something on your side has to undergo meiosis, and
that currently only happens in ova, so the prospect for that is
further off (but surprizes do happen).

Of course, you can easily--even legally--today, have a child with 50%
of your partner's genes, 25% of yours, and 25% of your ancestors' by
having your partner inseminated by your brother or father.

And as for that "true parent" quote, I tend to reject the idea that
DNA has anything at all to do with parenting.