Androgenesis

Historical Interest

Academic discussions of the feasibility and desirability of human androgenesis note that evidence of human interest in and desire for male pregnancy litters our history. Aristotle described human reproduction in distinctly androgenetic terms, claiming for men the power to form life and leaving to women the menial task of gestation. Androgenetic folklore abounds in Western culture, including the story of Zeus birthing Athena from his head. In Norse folklore, the god Loki allegedly twice gave birth, once after transforming into the body of a mare and once in his original form after eating a burnt ogress. According to some interpretations, even the Christian virgin birth story displaces Mary as the agent of generation in favor of a wholly procreative male God. Seventeenth-century spermists explained human reproduction as a function of the transmission of an homunculus, or “little man,” in sperm, that is then transferred into a woman to grow into a child.

The idea of human androgenesis has gained increasing traction in both popular culture and scientific research during the last third of the 20th century. Male pregnancy is the theme of several commercial films, including Night of the Blood Beast (1958), A Slightly Pregnant Man (1973), and Rabbit Test (1978). It was Ivan Reitman's 1994 blockbuster, Junior, featuring a pregnant Arnold Schwarzenegger, however, that ignited recent widespread interest in the possibility of pregnant men. Four years after Junior, artist Lee Mingwei's “World's First Pregnant Man” Website (http://www.malepregnancy.com) claimed to report in “real time” on the scientific breakthrough of the world's first pregnant man. The site sports a continuous fetal heartbeat rhythm, articles about the science of male pregnancy, and videotaped interviews with the pregnant mom/dad-to-be. Though repeatedly revealed as an elaborate fabrication, Mingwei's site, which he maintains and regularly updates, still receives numerous daily hits, 11 years after its inception. Androgenesis is also the focus of recent science fiction literature as well, including Stanley Pottinger's Fourth Procedure and Sherrie Tepper's The Fresco.

Further evidence of keen interest in male pregnancy was demonstrated by the response to the 2008 announcement that transgender American Thomas Beatie was pregnant. Mr. Beatie became an overnight media favorite. He starred in a quickly produced Discovery Channel documentary, and Seal Press published his autobiography by the year's end. The public announcement of his condition ignited a worldwide conversation about the ethics and desirability of male pregnancy and gestation. For Thomas Beatie, conception, gestation, and birth were possible because he was born with female reproductive anatomy and only later, in adulthood, underwent the hormonal (but not surgical) transition required to become male. According to some researchers, however, the science of human male pregnancy may soon be technologically feasible for men born without the benefit of Beatie's female reproductive organs.

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