There’s been a lot of talk lately about ovarian tissue transplants as treatment for infertility. A woman in Belgium was able to conceive and give birth after having a sample of her own pre-chemotherapy ovarian tissue implanted. Now, a woman has conceived and given birth thanks to the implantation of her twin sister’s ovarian tissue.
Since the tissue was genetically identical in both cases, this doesn’t prove that anyone can be an ovarian tissue donor for anyone else, but it does make you wonder. It also, of course, makes you think about how cloning could be employed to make people fertile.
I am against that, as you can imagine. I find the idea of creating a living clone for the purpose of harvesting its organs disgusting and horribly horribly wrong. (This is why it was so shocking to me that the Jedi Council so readily accepted the clone armies. What, were they like, “Oh, sure, they’re just clones”?!)
In any case, if it happens to become possible for a different person to donate ovarian tissue to me and make me fertile…then would the eggs still be mine, or what? Are my eggs already all produced, and just sitting in there? That was my understanding, for some reason. So would the new tissue cause the ovaries to once again be able to “activate” the eggs, leaving the genetic material inside intact? Or would the new tissue kickstart the generation of new eggs that weren’t mine?
I don’t want to give birth to a child that is half Sean and half some other woman. The whole thought is just ridiculous to me. Pointless. The point of conception and giving birth is to pass down your genetic material. I can love someone else’s child without giving birth to it. I would rather adopt, if I can’t conceive.
But if my ovaries could be repaired somehow, and the child would still be mine…then that would be great.