No

by Jimmy Nightingale

Created on: May 08, 2008   Last Updated: May 20, 2011

John Cleese once said: "Where's the foetus going to take, are you going to keep it in a box?" ('Life of Brian, 1979)

The image that immediately come to mind is twofold - a man pregnant, and worse, a man delivering a baby.  Not pretty.  In 'Life of Brian' the issue arose when Cleese's Peoples Front of Judea colleague, the gender confused Loretta/Stan declared that he wanted to become a woman so that he could have babies.  Obviously it is not as simple as that, there is the little question of biology.  This was resolved in 'Life of Brian' by arguing that Loretta/Stan should have the right to have babies.

Pointless?  Perhaps for now, but with the extraordinary advances in medical research, it may become possible in the future.  If you were able to travel back in time, things that we take for granted now, say heart transplants, in-vitro fertilisation, joint replacement, even something like epidural anaesthesia, would have seemed impossible, in the realm of science fiction.

In 1992, the Weekly World News published a story, 'Man Gives Birth to a Healthy Baby Boy!' (7th July) about Karl Holzer, a man in Frankfurt, Germany who apparently gave birth.  It was sensationalized in the media and appeared in tabloids everywhere.  The problem is that Karl was noted as being a hermaphrodite, someone with both male and female sex organs.  Although his birth certificate may have noted him as being male, that wasn't quite the case.  When we think about the prospect of a man being able to conceive and have a baby, we would tend to think of someone with just male sex organs being able to do this.  Karl's example, if true, is tantamount to cheating.

More recently, we had the case of Taiwanese man, Lee Mingwei.  No gender sleight of hand here.  This was a man purported to be pregnant by way of a revolutionary piece of biotechnology pioneered by a firm called GenoChoice, which basically involved implanting an embryo in Mr Mingwei's abdominal cavity.  At term, the baby would be delivered by caesarian section.  The link appears to be monitoring Mr Mingwei's pregnancy under the professional auspices of RYT Hospital/Dwayne Medical Center. 

It all looks very convincing.  At least until you start digging.  You quickly discover that Lee Migwei's pregnancy is nothing more than elaborate hoax perpetrated by artists Virgil Wong and Lee Mingwei.  The websites for Lee Mingwei, GenoChoice and RYT Hospital were all created by Wong and it is basically a multidisciplinary art project.  It is an urban legend, albeit a rather good one.

Some scientists have argued that it would be theoretically possible under a controlled set of conditions.  This would mean that the embryo would need to be implanted somewhere other than the female uterus.  When this occurs in women, it is called an ectopic pregnancy.  About 98 percent of ectopic pregnancies occur in the fallopian tubes on the way to the uterus.  A very small number occur in the abdominal cavity, however most of these either naturally miscarry or are absorbed by the woman's body.  Therefore, with the right circumstances, it could be theoretically possible for a man to carry an embryo in his abdominal cavity.

The elephant in the room is the simple fact that there is no instance of healthy full term baby being born from an ectopic pregnancy.  Even an early ectopic pregnancy (5 to 8 weeks) often requires major abdominal surgery and the risks of hemorrhaging are high and potentially life threatening.  As the baby grows, these risks grow commensurately and any possible benefits of a man being able to conceive babies would be cancelled out by the risks.  In all likelihood, both mother (or father) and baby would die.

In time and with further advances in medical technology, these risks may be able to be appropriately managed and it could be possible for a man to be pregnant and conceive babies.  Other than the kudos of being able to claim this medical first and the dubious consideration of a man being able to experience childbirth first hand, the practical applicaiton of such an advance doesn't make sense.  Roughly half our population has, at some stage in their lives, the biological machinery to be able to be pregnant and conceive babies without the need for such excessive risk or medical trickery.  Just because something may eventually be able to be done, doesn't mean it should be. 

Or as John Cleese would say, "What's the point?".

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