Immaculate Conception: Virgin Shark Gives Birth to Twins

JeanneSager — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:25:00 GMT

It's a miracle! Well, sort of. A female white spotted bamboo shark who hasn't been near a male in six years is now the proud mom of the Belle Isle Aquarium's two newest additions.

So what's the catch? There is none. The curator of fishes at the Detroit aquarium told National Geographic he'd heard of a bonnethead shark that supposedly had a "virgin birth" in Nebraska last year, so when the bamboo shark laid a cluth of eggs in April, he decided to leave them in the tank with her. Usually the eggs are assumed to be infertile and discarded.

Eventually moved to another tank, the eggs hatched 15 weeks after they'd been laid - without ever being touched by a male shark or any other form of intervention. The birth has scientists pondering the possibilities that the bamboo shark may be hermaphroditic or perhaps has been storing sperm from a male for the past six years (although the latter has been largely discounted). Genetic testing will have to be done before any real determination can be made, and that will take some time. In the meantime, the aquarium will not be discarding future clutches of eggs laid by its female sharks.

Sharks have been getting a bad rap since the '70s when Roy Scheider made us all fear the water, but I'm starting to warm to these cold-blooded creatures. Imagine, you don't even have to tell him you have a headache . . . and you still get a baby!

Image: Shark Foundation, egg of a white-spotted shark

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Gender's Up to Five-Year-Old Hermaphrodite, Not Parents

JeanneSager — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:35:00 GMT

Their child is a boy . . . and a girl. And as far as the Colombian courts are concerned, the 5-year-old hermaphrodite's parents do not have the right to sew the child's vagina shut and remove an ovary to allow for normal development of the penis and testicles.

Born with both female and male sexual organs, the youngster has been raised as a boy since birth. That's why his/her (I'm not being sarcastic, I really don't know quite which to say) father has been pressing for the right to schedule the surgery. But the court says at 5 it's too late for the parents to be making the decision - it's up to the child. I'd tend to agree - especially in light of the stories I've heard from the transgendered community over the years about the first time they remember feeling like they were in the "wrong" body. But what if the child chooses wrong?

Kids, by their nature, love to role play. Until adults start putting ideas in their head that somehow their behavior is abnormal (ugh), little boys will parade around in their sister's tutu or announce themselves as "Dora" today. The same goes for girls who might one day insist they're a boy, the next they're a girl, and back again. It can be a phase or it can be a sign of things to come. So how do you let a 5-year-old make this kind of decision?

The Intersex Society of North America, a non-profit advocacy group for the "intersex," actually advises against surgeries for children with both male and female reproductive organs - unless medical intervention is necessary for a child's health. Interestingly, they do advocate "gender assignment," essentially treating the child as one sex or the other from birth. In this case, the family has done that, choosing to treat their child as a son. But the ISNA says that has to be done after doctors do a complete evaluation to determine which gender the child is more likely to identify with as they grow up. Although it can't be 100 percent (think about the numbers of people seeking gender reassignment surgery), they say there are some markers within the body that give a general sense of how the rest of the body will develop.

Makes sense to me, and clears up a portion of the worry about letting a 5-year-old make such a huge decision. If doctors can say the body is developing one way or the other, and a child has significant support from the medical community (including counselors), this kind of decision should rest in the body of the person who will have to live with the results. Even if they're 5 years old.

Image: Mother Jones

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