Virgin Birth

The so-called "Virgin" was a young woman who was engaged to get married to an older man. Nothing strange in that, as that was what many young women experienced - and still do - in The Middle East. The strangeness of her fate doesn't appear until she - THE VIRGIN BRIDE!!!! - gives birth to a boy before marrying her betrothed, Joseph, claiming that God himself is the father of the child.

 

As we know this legend started a mental as well as political process of changing the Jewish faith into a new religion of a "virgin" giving birth without having sex. In a way that turns the focus on Jesus onto his mother, "The Virgin", but that focus has only been kept by The Catholic Church and cthey don't take the next step: Could it be that Mary got pregnant on her own, with no assistance of anybody, Yahweh, Joseph or an anonymous goat herder?

Naahh, the believers will say, that's impossible, as it takes two to have a baby. Actually, such a belief of a virgin birth would be in concordance with some of the older religions, but that's not as interesting as the biological possibilities: Would a woman be able to give birth without having sex? Most people would say "NO!!!", but I'll say that with the use of artificial sperm, it's possible to skip sex to have a baby. Or, rather, that's what is about to happen in the future when science moves from e.g. mice to humans. As far as I know, nobody has tried to make a woman give birth after fertilizing her with artificial sperm, although the system is working in animals.

Mary and artificial sperm aside we still have one question: Could a female human - also known as a "woman" - become pregnant on her own? Naahh, it doesn't seem so, or it happens very seldom according to Wikipedia: "In 1955, Helen Spurway, a geneticist specializing in the reproductive biology of the guppy (Lebistes reticulatus), claimed that parthenogenesis may occur (though very rarely) in humans, leading to so-called "virgin births". This created some sensation among her colleagues and the lay public alike. Sometimes an embryo may begin to divide without fertilization, but it cannot fully develop on its own; so while it may create some skin and nerve cells, it cannot create others (such as skeletal muscle) and becomes a type of benign tumor called an ovarian teratoma. Spontaneous ovarian activation is not rare and has been known about since the 19th century. Some teratomas can even become primitive fetuses (fetiform teratoma) with imperfect heads, limbs and other structures, but are non-viable." 

 

^{OK, if you say so - although you're a grandmother}

 

Virgin birth - also called "parthenogenesis" - is common (List of taxa that use parthenogenesis) in some plants as well as invertebrates, and most often favoring female offspring which may be the exact copies of their single parent: The mother. As it is, in biology the male human may be put out of business, so to speak, but I've never heard any women suggest that as a solution to gender wars, misogyny, etc. - at least not yet ....

 

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/05/27/1177191913/sperm-or-egg-in-lab-breakthrough-in-reproduction-designer-babies-ivg 

 

 

Wikipedia