This is my first diary. I am doing it out of frustration and would rather be (pick one: running, diving, flying, skiing, climbing, reading) on my Sunday.
But there I was in front of my TV at 10 am. And there was Mr. Huckabee on MTP http://www.msnbc.msn.com/... telling me that the reason for his anti-abortion stance was because he "understood biology". My jaw dropped (again)!
Well Hucky-boy, you and all the Repugs not only do not understand biology - you don't understand chemistry, physics, genetics ... and of course evolution. So why should we trust you to "know" good decision-making?
Catch the rest below the flap ...
Biologically speaking ... what does constitute a human being? The operational genetic definition is something with 44 chromosomes and an XX (female) or XY (male) chromosomes. Moreover, the 46 total chromosomes should contain a specific order of genes that is similar to the vast majority of the human population (99.9%; see below). This does NOT mean that the sequence of the 25,000+ different genes that make up a human be identical! In fact it is these sequence difference that creates the richness of the human population.
Well, somewhere in this magical discussion of when life begins, the science of conception got lost. In order to make a single fertilized cell that will ultimately develop into a human embryo with 44 chromosomes and an XX or XY, there has to be an egg with 22 chromosomes plus a single X chromosome that combines with a sperm containing 22 chromosomes plus a single X or a Y chromosome. Where did the egg and sperm cells come from – and why do they only have half the number of human chromosomes?
Its called meiosis. In the male and female, there are "germ" cells that ultimately produce gametes (sperm and eggs). To do this, they start with 44 chromosomes plus and XX or XY. They then undergo a process of "reduction division" (meiosis) such that half the chromosomes are divided out.
Probably the most amazing thing to me as a scientist was the discovery that reduction division starts by TRASHING all the chromosomes into FRAGMENTS - approximately 400 fragments. That means on average that the two human chromosome 1’s, the largest, are broken into 12-13 fragments each. The human chromosome 22’s, the smallest except for the Y chromosome, are each broken into 2-3 fragments each. These fragments then have to be put back together in the EXACT order that they started for there to be a new human being with 44 chromosomes plus and XX or XY. Turns out this process does not work so well! In fact there are many mistakes that leave the egg or sperm cell without whole chromosomes and/or pieces of chromosomes in the wrong place.
The good news is that conception/fertilization seems to sort this out. If an egg or sperm cell combines with an aberrant sperm or egg cell (respectively), the resulting zygote is almost always inviable. In fact, about 60% of conceptions/fertilizations end in the first trimester. In about 90% of these cases (when examined), clear chromosomal abnormalities can be identified. The available evidence suggests that these chromosome abnormalities are the result of problems associated with fixing the 400 or so chromosome fragments that started the egg or sperm cell into its destiny.
So in essence, 60% of the time that there is a "conception", the chromosomes of that "baby" are so THRASH that it is unable to survive. I wonder what god was thinking? In fact what was god thinking in ALL diploid organisms that reproduce like this (since they ALL do the same chromosome TRASHING while making eggs and sperm)?
So the fundy’s think that life begins at conception. A fertilized egg is a human ... period! That was Hucky-boy’s Biology Lesson for today. Now I am thinking to myself – 60% of those fertilizations have chromosomes that are so thrashed that they are not viable. So are they even human?
Now some of you folks out there are going to be between uncomfortable to outraged when remembering that there are several human conditions where the chromosomes are not "normal". Down Syndrome has an extra chromosome 21 or in some cases (~5%) there is a translocation of about 1/3 of chromosome 21 onto chromosome 14. And there are many cases of such genetic alterations that lead to not-so-normal medical conditions. Are these humans ... well, human? This too is an important ethical dilemma.
One can take two tacks with regard to this delemma: 1.) if folks containing chromosome abnormalities can reproduce with other humans, they therefore MUST be human (e.g. a human having sex with any other animal will NOT produce offspring – its called "speciation"), and 2.) if folks containing chromosome abnormalities are alive (i.e. brain signals), they therefore MUST be human.
Not wishing to suggest we test a bestiality hypothesis, I prefer the later definition. Why? Because that is how we define DEATH! The American legal system has consistently defined death as the absence of brain activity. So why can we not define LIFE the same way?
That gets us back to Hucky-boy. One wonders how god, and the fundy’s, treat all these fertilizations that are destined to die? Do they all get souls at conception? Where do these genetically problematic souls go when they die? Purgatory ... awaiting purification (genetic cleansing) and a chance at heaven?
I certainly cannot speak for god. But I would surely hope that he/she would be a lot smarter than humans!? Maybe that whole trashing chromosomes and then putting them back together, thing, is the first test of our biology (and maybe the big test of our future development). Maybe if one gets through THAT, then one gets a soul? Or maybe the American legal system actually got it right. Maybe god does not dole out a soul until the brain of a developing embryo starts firing ... a true sign that one has surpassed the trashing part of human biology?
Folks, the brain-firing thing happens at about week 12 of human development. Yes – that's about the end of the first trimester – or the time that most gynecologists think that one might consider telling relatives of ones pregnancy (because before then the risk of spontaneous abortion is quite high – likely due the chromosome problems cited above).
Hucky-boy and the Repugs have clearly shown their science smarts yet again. The fact that they are either unwilling or incapable of understanding these complexities in my mind excludes them from ANY position of decision-making that would affect the human population whose biology they obviously do not understand. For god’s sake – why would we want yet another idiot in the White House?