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the soon to be mother to select her pregnancy to have twins with a boy and a girl?
No. While it might be theoretically possible to choose the sex for a fertilized egg, we're not quite there yet. And even if we were, implantation of a fertilized egg is a crap shoot, and likely to remain so. If you introduce 5 fertilized eggs into a uterus, odds are decent that more than one will take, but exactly which ones is not predictable.
You all are telling me that it was a PURE COINCIDENT that two super rich women (Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey) who gave birth in their late 30s or early 40s and to never give birth again, just happen to have twins of one gender each?
No. While it might be theoretically possible to choose the sex for a fertilized egg, we're not quite there yet.
It's totally possible, sperm can be sexed and sorted into X and Y Sperm using flow cytometry. First patent on this was issued in 1987.
Expose an unfertilized egg to sperm of only one type of sperm and bob's your uncle, or Nellie's your aunt.
It's not 100% accurate, but tests of the fertilized embryo's can be used to guarantee sex. So you have a collection of female embryos and male embryos.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jacqueg
And even if we were, implantation of a fertilized egg is a crap shoot, and likely to remain so. If you introduce 5 fertilized eggs into a uterus, odds are decent that more than one will take, but exactly which ones is not predictable.
Agreed, that's the difficult part, you'd introduce two populations of embryos and some would implant, which ones are a crapshoot. If you introduced say 10 half and half, you could as easily wind up having single sex triplets and different sex twins.
Thanks for the correction gungnir, I didn't know that. Do you know whether that service is being offered to prospective parents?
No, I don't. However in the context of the thread, it's not really pertinent. Can the science allow...?
The answer is almost, certainly we can create sexed embryos. That being the case people with sufficient resources can always find someone who will perform a procedure to use that technology, I don't think there is any proscription on sexing sperm for use in IVF, and no proscription on embryo selection for implantation either (nor can there be, only the most viable embryos are selected for implantation).
Certainly without the opposite sex twins, it's completely possible to select the sex of a child (or however many embryos implant). The last step is the difficult one that being ensuring only one of each gender reach maturity. Of course if we're discussing genetic twins (male/female not identical), then you can resolve that issue with using two surrogates (or the intended mother and a surrogate), again not an issue for people with sufficient resources.
You all are telling me that it was a PURE COINCIDENT that two super rich women (Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey) who gave birth in their late 30s or early 40s and to never give birth again, just happen to have twins of one gender each?
The chances of two mothers of twins both having one of each is around 15-20% (25% if only fraternal twins are considered). Hardly insurmountable odds there.
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