[MHGinTN]

The article alludes to a limited viability. DeadCorpse Here's the deal with the rhetoric of the scientists trying this parthenogenesis. When they say the embryo will not develop into a human, they mean the embryo will not be implanted into a life supporting body for a finish to gestational development. They don't tell you that if they are successful in stimulating the diploid ovum into mitosis, it very well could develop into a female from the parent donor, and it could do just that. The 'limited viability' is due to the goal of the technicians in not implanting the embryo so conceived, rather than in some limiting factor of the embryo so conceived.

When the female sex cell begins its journey in preparation for being fertilized, it 'gives up' half of it's chromosome complement to become a diploid cell. With parthenogenesis, the ovum is stimulated with an electrical charge while it still has its full complement of 46 chromosomes, making it, in effect, an 'embryo in waiting.

[MHGinTN]

ping ... to parthenogenesis thread

[Alamo-Girl]

Hmmm ... thanks for the information!

[general_re]

They don't tell you that if they are successful in stimulating the diploid ovum into mitosis, it very well could develop into a female from the parent donor, and it could do just that. The 'limited viability' is due to the goal of the technicians in not implanting the embryo so conceived, rather than in some limiting factor of the embryo so conceived.

Absolutely false. Parthenogenetic organisms almost invariably either develop abnormally when implanted, or fail to develop at all. The limiting factor is within the organism itself, not simply because they don't intend to implant it.