Lucy Leader, I really appreciate that you raise all these questions. History shows us how stifling divergent perspectives lead to horrendous abuse of the most vulnerable. I cannot understand how we, as a society, can be so arrogant to think that we can turn our back on the most basic rules of nature, and somehow emerge unmarred.
Hi Lucy, a very well-written piece, thankyou. I'm really sorry but as a pedantic biologist can I ask you to say sex is determined at fertilisation i.e. when sperm fuses with egg up near the ovaries. This is 5 days before the woman is pregnant, because pregnancy starts when the developing embryo implants in the uterus lining and starts chucking out the hormone that a pregnancy test detects. Lots of fertilised eggs never implant. Conception is a term in use since the 1300s meaning "to get pregnant" which encompasses beliefs such as that the whole small human is inside the sperm head. Or the agricultural analogy that the man sows his seed in the fertile field of the womb. Understanding the processes involved really only happened in the last century. DNA structure only elucidated in the 1950s (thankyou Rosalind Franklin!). Oh, and Homo sapiens is the Latin binomial for our amazing mammalian species!
Thank you for your gentle correction. Just because a sperm fuses with an egg does not mean you are pregnant, nor is it in any way inevitable that you will get a baby. But if that fertilized egg does implant in a woman's uterus, the sex of any future child is already fixed; nothing changes in this regard. I was using the word "conception" as it tends to be used in general circumstances and how many out there understand this term. But I have taken note for future posts!
Thanks, I always feel a bit bad but I have never seen the word conception in a biology book and the fundamental thing here is biology (although there’s lots of arguments about whether gendered behaviours are partly biological) Everyone who has been to school will know the word fertilisation which applies to all sexually reproducing species which is the vast majority of all living organisms they’ll have just forgotten it!
Never apologize for knowing stuff! Ignorance is the enemy. I think you will find a similar use of the word "conception" by the anti-abortion movement. Here's a typical example of this: https://naapc.org/when-does-a-human-being-begin/why-life-begins-at-conception/ This is also used by bodies such as the Catholic church to oppose contraceptive methods that don't prevent fertilization, but implantation of a fertilized egg.
And I meant to thank you for your shout out for Rosalind Franklin, who is still largely ignored/forgotten in favor of the "important" men who did the groundbreaking work around DNA.
Well it’s nicely biblical isn’t it “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son” 1603(?) Bible….and the different contraceptive methods show how many stages there are before actual conception….it’s all fascinating to me!
Lucy Leader, I really appreciate that you raise all these questions. History shows us how stifling divergent perspectives lead to horrendous abuse of the most vulnerable. I cannot understand how we, as a society, can be so arrogant to think that we can turn our back on the most basic rules of nature, and somehow emerge unmarred.
Hi Lucy, a very well-written piece, thankyou. I'm really sorry but as a pedantic biologist can I ask you to say sex is determined at fertilisation i.e. when sperm fuses with egg up near the ovaries. This is 5 days before the woman is pregnant, because pregnancy starts when the developing embryo implants in the uterus lining and starts chucking out the hormone that a pregnancy test detects. Lots of fertilised eggs never implant. Conception is a term in use since the 1300s meaning "to get pregnant" which encompasses beliefs such as that the whole small human is inside the sperm head. Or the agricultural analogy that the man sows his seed in the fertile field of the womb. Understanding the processes involved really only happened in the last century. DNA structure only elucidated in the 1950s (thankyou Rosalind Franklin!). Oh, and Homo sapiens is the Latin binomial for our amazing mammalian species!
Thank you for your gentle correction. Just because a sperm fuses with an egg does not mean you are pregnant, nor is it in any way inevitable that you will get a baby. But if that fertilized egg does implant in a woman's uterus, the sex of any future child is already fixed; nothing changes in this regard. I was using the word "conception" as it tends to be used in general circumstances and how many out there understand this term. But I have taken note for future posts!
Thanks, I always feel a bit bad but I have never seen the word conception in a biology book and the fundamental thing here is biology (although there’s lots of arguments about whether gendered behaviours are partly biological) Everyone who has been to school will know the word fertilisation which applies to all sexually reproducing species which is the vast majority of all living organisms they’ll have just forgotten it!
Never apologize for knowing stuff! Ignorance is the enemy. I think you will find a similar use of the word "conception" by the anti-abortion movement. Here's a typical example of this: https://naapc.org/when-does-a-human-being-begin/why-life-begins-at-conception/ This is also used by bodies such as the Catholic church to oppose contraceptive methods that don't prevent fertilization, but implantation of a fertilized egg.
And I meant to thank you for your shout out for Rosalind Franklin, who is still largely ignored/forgotten in favor of the "important" men who did the groundbreaking work around DNA.
Well it’s nicely biblical isn’t it “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son” 1603(?) Bible….and the different contraceptive methods show how many stages there are before actual conception….it’s all fascinating to me!