ENDEAVOUR FORUM NEWS WEEKLY ARTICLES
MAN - A VANISHING SPECIES?
Will the latest biotechnological breakthroughs finally dispense
with the need for men in the human reproductive process, asks
Babette Francis.
revolutionary technique, developed
last year by Kyoto University’s
Dr Shinya Yamanaka, of
converting adult skin-cells into
Dr Shinya
Yamanaka
embryonic-like pluripotent stem-cells
has been hailed by pro-lifers because
it eliminates the need for manufacturing
and destroying human embryos
for
their stem cells.
President George W. Bush’s controversial
ban on US federal funding of
embryonic stem-cell research has been
vindicated because it persuaded scientists
to “think outside the box”.
Yamanaka’s induced pluripotent
stem-cells (iPS cells) proved their worth
when scientists at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology demonstrated
that these cells can be used to successfully
treat sickle-cell anaemia in mice.
Researchers who had tried the same
experiment with cloning and failed,
agreed that this demonstrated that iPS
cells have the same potential for therapy
as embryonic stem cells, but without the
ethical dilemmas.
However, while the necessity for
experimenting on human embryos has
been eliminated, the technology raises
other ethical issues.
“Strange and dangerous”
Yamanaka said the potential for iPS cells to develop into any kind of cell means that sperm and eggs could be made from the iPS cells of one person. He asked: “What if somebody took those sperm and eggs from a single person and fertilised them? The result would not be a clone because of the way cells divide during sexual reproduction — the fertilised egg would not be genetically identical to the original iPS cells — but it would be something very strange and dangerous.” Narcissistic radical feminists who would love to have “a baby of their very own” without any male input would not regard the technology as “strange and dangerous” but would doubtless welcome it. However, pro-lifers describe such reproduction as “the ultimate incest”. Then there is the technology being pursued by Newcastle-upon-Tyne University researchers who are trying to turn cells from women’s bone marrow into sperm. This would enable lesbian couples to have their own children without hunting for male donors, and, as a bonus, the resultant babies would all be female. The technology is also available to men, who could have their skin cells turned into ova, but they would need the co-operation of women as surrogate mothers to gestate embryos. However, there would be no such problems for feminist separatists who flourish in the “wimmyn’s” studies departments of universities. They have long dreamed of a world without men; now their dream is approaching reality. Thanks to no-fault divorce — mostly initiated by women — many men have already been marginalised in the lives of their children; now men can be made biologically redundant too.
Nature is ruthless in terms of biological imperatives — what is not necessary for the survival of a species can be eliminated. What with the imposition of radical feminist policies over ostensibly male-dominated parliaments — think of IVF-for-single-women legislation and Victorian Liberal Senator Kay Patterson’s cloning bills — this could spell the end of men! The male sperm-count is dropping alarmingly worldwide. There is speculation this is caused by oestrogen entering water supplies through women’s use of the contraceptive pill. Oestrogen cannot easily be eliminated from water, unlike bacteria. There is evidence that fish are changing sex — or as UN feminists would say, “exploring their gender options” — in water near sewage outlets. When male sperm-count plummets to zero, women may be able to manufacture their own sperm using iPS cells from their bone marrow. However, we may still need men — if only because, like Dr Yamanaka, they have the scientific capacity to “think outside the box”. Remember the old joke about the feminists of the world who decided they had enough sperm stored in the fridges of the world and so they could get rid of all the men, which they proceeded to do? Unfortunately, there was a power failure which none of the women could fix, the fridges defrosted and the sperm perished, as did the human race.
I was reminded of that at a recent “Melbourne Community Consultation Event” held by the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner at the Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission office in the city. All the usual radical feminist cabal were there to expound on their grievances, plus a few dispirited-looking men. The event was 30 minutes late in starting because the sound system was not working, and none of the women in charge could fix it despite all their decades of equal opportunity education. Eventually, one of the women had to narrate the dialogue to accompany the soundless videos we were shown. But all the time it made me nostalgic for a red-blooded, blue-collar male tradesman who could have fixed the sound. Let’s hope they — like men in general — are not a vanishing species.
— The author Babette Francis, B.Sc. (Hons), is national co-ordinator of Endeavour Forum Inc.
Member Organisation, World Council for Life and Family
NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the UN