I've just read an interesting article today on yahoo. The article was about a transgender beauty queen being disqualified on a beauty pageant. Over the past few years, I was not so keen about these transgenders. I was too conservative that the thought itself of that noun makes my mind denies their existence but that was before and I'm more open-minded now. The thing that made me curious about this article is the fact that these transgenders are considering themselves as having the new gender already (i.e. male to female). As a biologist, it is quite intriguing. I know there is a big difference between the definition of a male and female in the society compared to the definition in biology. I'm more on the biological aspect that I find their statement to be wrong that they are now considered female if they were once male and male if they were once female. There is just a big difference between a female and a male physiologically. Many would argue with me that they're almost the same. But what really urged me to write this post is after reading a wishful comment of one transgender. She or he said that "hopefully in the next years, medical advancement would allow them to give birth."(She was male before). That really gave a spark on me.
It is not that I hate transgenders or homosexuals but that was wishful thinking. It is as if they are asking for some miracle. Biologically, it is impossible to change or to transform a sperm into an egg cell. Genetically, it would also be impossible to culture an organ of the opposite sex because it would not be compatible with the body. Physiologically, a surgeon can only change a tissue morphologically but never physiologically(i.e., a seminiferous tubule would never change to a germinal epithelium.) It is impossible to make a functional tissue from a completely different one.
The magic that the surgeons do to these people are not magic at all. They are simply changing the shape or structure of the tissues. It is impossible for a surgeon to transform a tissue into a completely different one. Macroscopically, they are somehow similar to the desired reproductive organ but microscopically, it is a very different story. Although that is true for the surgeons, I think it is possible for the Geneticists to change the DNA of a male cell to become a female cell(i.e. sperm to egg) but those cells would never be functional as they would never be compatible with the gene of the transgender.
It is not that I hate transgenders or homosexuals but that was wishful thinking. It is as if they are asking for some miracle. Biologically, it is impossible to change or to transform a sperm into an egg cell. Genetically, it would also be impossible to culture an organ of the opposite sex because it would not be compatible with the body. Physiologically, a surgeon can only change a tissue morphologically but never physiologically(i.e., a seminiferous tubule would never change to a germinal epithelium.) It is impossible to make a functional tissue from a completely different one.
The magic that the surgeons do to these people are not magic at all. They are simply changing the shape or structure of the tissues. It is impossible for a surgeon to transform a tissue into a completely different one. Macroscopically, they are somehow similar to the desired reproductive organ but microscopically, it is a very different story. Although that is true for the surgeons, I think it is possible for the Geneticists to change the DNA of a male cell to become a female cell(i.e. sperm to egg) but those cells would never be functional as they would never be compatible with the gene of the transgender.
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