Since always, when a child asked where children come from, they explained that of dad and mom together, the little seed, love, nine months later, etc. Now, seeing how science evolves and with the latest advances it is possible that answering such a typical question is more complicated.
Aarathi Prasad, scientist, writer and presenter, has generated controversy in the United Kingdom with his book "Like a Virgin", whose cover you see in the image, in which he explains that it is no longer necessary to have sex to have children and that soon you won't even need to gestate them, because a fetus can develop in artificial wombs.
Having children without having sex
Sexual relations to have children have long been unnecessary to get pregnant. In vitro fertilization, which is used since 1978, has already achieved the miracle of getting pregnancies without sex thanks to the fertilization of a sperm and an egg before being implanted in women. Let's say that, from that moment, it was already possible to be a mother like a virgin (like a virgin) because pregnancy does not come from a sexual relationship.
Having children without gestating them
In one of the things that goes beyond the writer is the possibility of have children without even getting pregnant. A sperm and an egg are fertilized in a laboratory to be implanted in an artificial uterus.
Ethical issues aside, that would possibly stop or limit this possibility to very specific cases, the possibility of making it a reality is close or very close, seeing that it has already been plausible to use an artificial uterus to gestate gray shark pups and try to avoid their extinction.
Having children without sperm or eggs
Finally, the most significant advance would be the one in which not only do not need sexual intercourse or a uterus to gestate that baby, but neither are sperm nor ovules necessary.
As Prasad says:
Geneticists are breaking the codes that prevent our oocytes from becoming embryos without sperm; Researchers in the field of stem cells are creating ovules and sperm from bone marrow cells; artificial wombs are being built and artificial chromosomes are being developed.
This solution would be aimed at fathers or mothers and elderly whose ability to reproduce has been impaired by age or in cases where any disease affects the fertility of any of the parents.
To talk about all this, this biologist, who is curiously a single mother, supports her claims with scientific studies and ensures that what she explains is not so revolutionary, precisely because of what we have commented a few paragraphs above: people are shocked to talk about have children without sex, but it has been possible for more than thirty years.
Although the book has generated controversy, Prasad defends the progress as follows:
They are technologies that can greatly improve women's lives, giving us more time than biology dictates, perhaps removing some of the negative effects of menopause and being, moreover, more ethical options than paying poor women for being mothers of rental.
It is possible that these advances will still take time and are likely to generate controversy. As with everything, the novelty can be badly received for being novelty and for being debatable. Will these advances come to consolidate as a new way to have children in our society? In time we will know.
