[ExI] End of the Gene

[Amara Graps]

hkhenson hkhenson at rogers.com :
>Problem is I wrote a page and can't really think of more to say.
>I have been asked by a journal to do an article with this title.
>Suggestions welcome, can send what I have to anyone who wants to see it.

You could describe trends in the Western countries. My generation of
women (middle 40s) is the last who will experience the phenomenon of
unreproduceable genes in otherwise fully healthy bodies. Freezing eggs
became viable only a few years ago, so young 20/30s women can now give
themselves the 20 year buffer that I was hoping to have 15 years ago,
when I started tracking the egg-freezing technology, but it is too late
for me. I can physically carry a baby to term, but I can't make a baby
(eggs too old). I can be a womb and 'adopt' a fertilized egg, but I
can't adopt a fully formed baby made by someone else (in many countries,
the age difference limitation between mother and baby is 45 years). This
may sound like an odd phenomena, but according to the Estonian fertility
clinic doctors I am seeing, creating life with eggs not one's own is a
commonly suggested path to women like me. Educated, ready financially
(finally) to grow and support a family, but with a gene line that is
dead.

So genetic testing won't determine the parent of _my_ potential baby to
be. My baby will be the product of all my heart and mind, instead.

Amara

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Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado