Thursday, January 1, 2009

Clones

Obviously, I'm very interested in the effects of nature vs. nurture in children's personalities and appearances.  (Personalities more than appearance, to be honest)

What I have found to be so interesting is all the new evidence that even clones do not look or act exactly alike.  Clones: identical twins.  We've never been able to study identical twins carried by different mothers before.  With clones, we now have that chance.  

This article in the NY Times today compares cloned dogs that do not look exactly alike and have anywhere from vastly different to somewhat different "personalities." What this says to me is that the environment to which the baby/puppy is gestated and born has a much bigger effect on genes than has been recognized in the past.  I don't want that to worry women who use gestational surrogates to complete their families.  But for me, it means I have a much stronger effect on my babies' development into MY babies than has been acknowledged by science or my nutjob pre-DE therapist.

Happy New Year everyone.   I hope you're looking forward to an adventerous new year as much as we are!

No comments: