Christianity - A Journey from Facts to Fiction — Page 176
176 Christianity – A Journey from Facts to Fiction genetically using calcium ionophore, but at lower rates than seen for mouse oocyte. Human parthenotes can complete division to the 8-cell stage. This data raises the possibility that some early human pregnancy losses may involve oocyte that have been parthenogenetically activated spontaneously. An incident of partial parthenogenesis in a human was reported in the New Scientist of 7 October, 1995 under the heading, ‘The boy whose blood has no father’. 8 In the case of males all cells should have a Y chromosome, but in this particular case study of a three year old boy the white blood cells were found to contain only XX chromosomes. The reporter also mentions that occasionally, chromosomal females carry one X chromosome which includes the maleness gene and that the researchers had at first assumed that their case study was an example of this syndrome. But when they used extremely sensitive DNA technology they were not able to detect any Y chromosome material in the boy’s white blood cells. However, the boy’s skin was discovered to be genetically different from his blood, having both X and Y chromosomes. A more detailed analysis of the X chromosomes in the boy’s skin and blood revealed that all his X chromosomes were identical and derived entirely from his mother. Similarly, both members of each of the 22 other chromosome pairs in his blood were identical, coming entirely from the mother. The explanation given by the researchers 8 This report concerned the research of David Bonthron et al. and refers to the Oct. 1995 issue of Nature Genetics where their report is to be found.