Advancing the Species OR Messing with Nature? You decide!

[Motherdragon]

I recently summated a survey on Cafemom called “Advancing the Species or Messing with Nature”. The survey allows you to place your own opinions on selected topics that may be considered to be some to be advancing the species and by others to be Messing with Nature. The survey can be found by following the link bellow:

http://www.cafemom.com/surveys/842/Advancing_the_species_or_Messing_with_nature?cat_id=&remove=1920

But what you may not know is that there is only TWO of the topics within the survey that are NOT documented as either attempted and/or or currently in practice.

Now I am fairly certain that all of you know that Life support, Blood Transfusions. Labor inductions, Cesarean Sections, Infant Formula, Fertility treatments, X-rays, and Ultrasounds are all currently in wide-spread practice. But did you know

Cloning Animals: The 1^st animal to be cloned was a tadpole (1952)

Scientists have been cloning animals for many years. In 1952, the first animal, a tadpole, was cloned. Before the creation of Dolly, the first mammal cloned from the cell of an adult animal, clones were created from embryonic cells. Since Dolly, researchers have cloned a number of large and small animals including sheep, goats, cows, mice, pigs, cats, rabbits, and a gaur. See Cloned Animals below. All these clones were created using nuclear transfer technology.

Hundreds of cloned animals exist today, but the number of different species is limited. Attempts at cloning certain species such as monkeys, chickens, horses, and dogs, have been unsuccessful. Some species may be more resistant to somatic cell nuclear transfer than others. The process of stripping the nucleus from an egg cell and replacing it with the nucleus of a donor cell is a traumatic one, and improvements in cloning technologies may be needed before many species can be cloned successfully.

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml

Cloning Plants: Has been around for centries

Plant cloning has been around for centuries. Cloning allows the gardener to replicate a genetically identical plant from a parent plant. The clone will have the exact same characteristics as the mother plant, the same growth habit, disease resistance, fruit shape, flower color and yield potential.

http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/static/articles/1205_cloning.asp

Men Lactating/Breastfeeding: Though rare, can and does occur both with and without hormone treatments.

The phenomenon of male lactation in humans has become more common in recent years due to the use of medications that stimulate a human male's mammary glands. Though human males have nipples, it is not so often understood that they also have mammary glands. Ordinarily the mammary tissue is low in volume and cannot be noticed. Under the appropriate hormonal stimulus -- the hormonal stimulus that nature provides to human females when they become pregnant and give birth -- the mammary glands of human males can also produce milk. The volume of milk produced is low relative to that of a lactating female.

Male lactation is most commonly caused by hormonal treatments given to men suffering from prostate cancer. Female hormones are used to retard the production of cancerous prostate tissue, but the same hormones also stimulate the mammary glands. Male-to-female transsexuals may also produce milk due to the hormones they take to reshape their bodies. Extreme stress combined with demanding physical activity and a shortage of food has also been known to cause male lactation. The phenomenon was first studied in survivors of the liberated Nazi concentration camps after World War II. Some American POWs returning from the Korean and Vietnam Wars also experienced male lactation.

It is also possible for males (and females) to induce lactation through constant massage and simulated 'sucking' of the nipple over a long period of time (months).

The phenomenon of male lactation occurs in some non-human species, and the lactating males may assist in the nursing of their infants. One species of fruit bat, the Dayak fruit bat (Dyacopterus spadiceus), is notable for this reason. According to several sources, male lactation and even nursing have occasionally been observed in humans.

http://www.menstuff.org/issues/byissue/malelactation.html

http://www.unassistedchildbirth.com/miscarticles/milkmen.html

Cross Breading: Has been in practice for 100o’s of years. Some results of cross breading you may be aware of are: The Donkey, Mule, Wolfdog, Miniature Bulldog. This has also been known to occure completely naturally in nature.

Crossbreeding refers to creating a hybrid animal from two purebred animals. An ancient form of crossbreeding is the mule. A mule is a crossbreed animal that is created from a female horse and a male donkey. A crossbreed is a man made invention and is therefore not created through natural breeding. Most crossbreeds can be found in captivity.
There are a number of animals that are the result of crossbreeding. Many of these animals have been exhibited in zoos or in circuses.
A liger is a crossbreed between a male lion and a female tiger. A tigon is a crossbreed between a male tiger and a female lion. Ligers are large cats, whereas tigons are smaller. A male liger and a male tigon are sterile. Female ligers and female tigons can be fertile.

http://www.crossbreeding.org/

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/hybriddogs.htm

http://www.hemmy.net/2006/06/19/top-10-hybrid-animals/

Cross Pollinating: With the asistance of bees and other pollinating insects, This has been occurring naturally in nature almost since time began.

One method of pollination is called ”cross-pollination”. Once a plant reaches the pollen-producing stage, its pollen may be gathered by the owner by using the Cross-Pollination button. Gathered pollen may be used on another full-grown plant. When you pollinate one plant with pollen from another plant, the targeted plant will produce seeds that will grow into a hybrid of the two plants. The color and type of each ”parent” plant are combined to produce a new type of seed that will grow from the targeted plant.

While you may continue to gather pollen from a plant throughout its entire life cycle, once a plant has been pollinated (either by itself, through natural pollination, or through manual cross-pollination from another plant), no further combinations may be performed. The seed type that the plant will produce is determined the first time the plant is pollinized, and cannot be changed afterwards.
In very rare circumstances, cross-pollination may result in a ”mutation”. If mutation occurs, the targeted plant will not produce seeds that are a combination of the two ”parent” plants, but will instead produce ”mutated” seeds that grow into mutant plant varieties.

Known mutation colors are black and white. There's about a 1% chance for this to happen.

http://uo.stratics.com/content/basics/crosspollination.shtml

And Even….

A man carrying a child through the assistance of an artificial uterus!

First, let me apologize, because the 1st video I had seen about a "pregnant man" was almost a year ago.  I was unable to locate that video in which a man became pregnant through the assistance of an artificual uterous.  I am not sure wheather it was declared falsified or wheither it was ignored due to falure.  But in my search for that video I came agross another "pregnant man".  This is definatly legit documentation, but unlike the one I origionally viewed,  there was NO artificial Uterus. The Pregnant “Man” was at one time a woman, and never had “his” uterus removed. But here are a couple news clips that document the pregnantcy and birth from this “pregnant man”.

The topics mentioned in the survey, that have no documentation of ever being attempted are:  CLONING ORGANS and CLONING HUMANS. 

[mommy2Kailey]

Jul. 4, 2008 at 11:43 PM LOL. I failed the test horribly!

[kimberleee382]

Jul. 8, 2008 at 1:54 PM

I gave you my take on all this on the survey page...

But I was thinking more about the cloning of plants and animals...  And I decided i'm against that too.

I'm against bringing ANY life into this world artificially.  It just  doesn't sit right with me.   I heard the argument once that we could SAVE our endangered or extinct plant or animal species with cloning and here's my take on that-  What would it solve?  If you want to save a species, CARE A LITTLE.  Preserve their environment.   STOP KILLING THEM!  Give them the time and space to reproduce.  Offer medical care for their sick.  That's how you save a species.  You don't just manufacure more of them and set them loose.   That doesn't SOLVE THE PROBLEM.  The problem is US, not THEM.

It would be like giving your spoiled and destructive teenager a new car every time he wrecks the old one.  What does that solve?  

exactly.

 

[kimberleee382]

Jul. 10, 2008 at 12:17 PM

Have to say, I'm really surprised these posts didn't draw more attention....

I figured EVERYONE would have an opinion on this!!