Same Sex Pregnancy in Real Life?

[Ashleigh825]

As those of you who follow The Charm Legacy are aware, there's much speculation about how Morgan and her lover Savannah are going to conceive children that are eligible to inherit the estate.

I've stated from the beginning that while I may bend and break rules here and there for the sake of a good story, I want to maintain some sense of realism in the story. Not that I can't stretch my imagination and get far-fetched, but my Sims aren't about to suddenly gain radioactive superpowers and befriend elves and aliens, either, as epicly awesome as that would be.

I was doing research for following chapters and came across this article. Apparently, scientists are studying the possibility of manipulating female egg cells to mutate into "female sperm" and male sperm cells to mutate into "male eggs", to allow same-sex couples to conceive biological children together. It's part of stem cell research (which is yes, controversial, but that's not the point I'm making).

My point is that it very well could become possible to have same sex pregnancies in real life in the very near future, and that makes the concept of Morgan and Savannah having biological children much more conceivable (pun definitely intended ).

That said, I'm not sure how reliable this particular site is with the accuracy of their information, as I haven't been to it before now, but I have heard of similar research being done from various other sources so I'm partial to believing that the general point of this article has some truth to it.

Anyway, I may or may not use this as a means of explaining Morgan and Savannah conceiving together, but I thought it posed a pretty good topic of conversation for this board.

Thoughts?

(Keep in mind that this isn't a debate thread about the moral implications of stem cell research and is only here for people to discuss the possibility of a semi-realistic same-sex pregnancy as it relates to The Charm Legacy).

[druelf]

Well, the way I could see it happening, is if Morgan or Savannah was perhaps employed in the Medical or Science Career and participates in an 'experiment'.

I'm not sure how that would work with their traits and LTW's, but it's an idea of how it could be plausible.. I'd suggest getting the fertility rewards and try for twins or triplets though, best to only do it once (and IVF multiple births are pretty common) and you want the best chance of getting an heiress. Getting the fertility treatment could be worked into the story too.

I guess even if neither of them are employed in science or medicine they could always volunteer.

On the other hand., since this is a legacy, if you wanted to follow the rules, you could always get a 'sperm doner', as the heiress has to be a blood relative of Morgan, not Savannah. Not quite so romantic, but more uh, traditional. They could then adopt more children once an heiress is born, which I could see Savannah being partial to, given her own upbringing.

Either way I'm looking forward to the next part of the story!

Edit - The thing about this kind of experimental stuff is that it won't necessarily be successful. Not only would there be miscarriages, but birth defects would also be likely. With the Charm history of difficult pregnancies, and Morgan's disability I would think that the probability or problems would be even higher. Just something to consider.

[Ashleigh825]

Yes, I think Savannah would really love to have an adopted child, since she lost her own parents rather young and pretty much raised herself, though her aunt did try. Carol loves Savannah so much, but she's just not mature enough to be a parent to her. Savannah was kind of suddenly thrust into Carol's lap because Savannah had no one else. It was either Carol or foster care and Carol couldn't let that happen to her sister's daughter.

While Savannah harbours resentment towards her aunt for her upbringing, she knows that Carol loves her and tried her best, even if she often failed miserably.

So I can definitely see why Savannah would want to adopt a child. She'd want to give a good upbringing to someone in the same situation as her, and that's definitely something I'm thinking about.

There seems to be a mixed reaction to the same-sex pregnancy possibility, which I find interesting. Some people really like the idea of working that into the story somehow and agree that Savannah's genes would be lovely to have in the family. Others find it to be "cheating", even though I technically failed the challenge ages ago. I'm finishing it anyway, because I love writing their story and people love reading it.

I wouldn't mind using the sperm donor method, especially since I have a pollination feature with one of my mods that will instantly impregnate Morgan with whoever I want, thereby eliminating the possibility of Savannah discovering an "affair" in-game and her relationship with Morgan becoming nearly impossible to repair. Of course, that's cheating, too, but like I said, I failed the challenge ages ago, plus it makes more sense story-wise.

The rules also state that anyone who isn't contributing to the bloodline can't live in the legacy house, so that would mean that Savannah wouldn't be able to live there unless I used the same-sex pregnancy method. Still, I already broke that rule with Juliana, so I guess it's not that big a deal with Savannah.

Everything's pretty much up in the air right now. I have no idea how to play this out in my game and my Sims might very well have some ideas of their own and deviate from my original plan, like they did in the last chapter.

We'll see how things pan out. At this point, anything that happens will be a surprise to me as well as the readers.

EDIT: I think there will most likely be problems with Morgan's pregnancy, whether she decided to use an experimental procedure or a sperm donor, because of her family history. I think both routes would be dangerous for her, but I also think the experimental route would be more dangerous, simply because no one knows too much about it, yet. Hence why it's an experiment. I'm always looking for ways to add excitement and drama to the story, so that certainly appeals to me as a writer, but at the same time, there's a fine line between drama and melodrama.

[sianystar]

Couldn't you have a same-sex pregnancy in-game, but write it as sperm donation carefully chosen so that the donor would resemble Savannah? Best of both worlds, you get Savannah's genes in the genepool without using some crazy science thing.

[Ashleigh825]

That's a possibility as well.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of a crazy science experiment, since Morgan's parents are both involved in scientific careers. Margaret's in the Science career track and Miraj is in the Medical career track.

Still, a sperm donor is more realistic...

Ghah, so torn, heh heh. I don't even know if I have Same-Sex Pregnancy in my game, anyway, though I do know that I can use twallan's SuperComputer to artificially pollinate a Sim with another Sim of the same gender.

[elliotdx]

It could be as simple as a sperm donor to resemble Savannah/Morgan.

Though you could have some scientific experiment where the Science and Medical careers are working together (Morgan finds out from her parents) and they extracted the DNA from one of their egg cells, implanted it into an emptied sperm cell, and fertilise with that.

[Ashleigh825]

Yeah, that was kind of the route I was thinking about.

My legacy has just taken a shocking turn of events, though, so I need to think it over and re-evaluate everything to make sure the characters are acting well... in-character, when it comes to the subject of continuing the line.

[elliotdx]

Maybe some drama that some of the family is against it, and then a whole homophobia plot.

[Ashleigh825]

Well, I'm not sure if homophobia would be realistic. The Charm family is and always has been rather accepting of homosexuality. Mandy was so happy for Christopher when he found Jimmy and she liked Jimmy a lot, but she had to follow tradition, which was why she refused to let Jimmy move in. It broke her heart to do it, too.

Even Thaddeus doesn't hate homosexuality. He's more confused by it. He just doesn't understand why someone would be attracted to someone else of the same sex. He thinks it's a "fad" that's become popular amongst the younger generation these days, but his ignorance is founded more on the fact that he's old and traditional, and not so much out of hatred.

However, there WILL be a lot of controversy over how Morgan will continue the line, between everyone in the house, though in light of recent events in my game, you may be very surprised at how all the characters, including Morgan, react to it.

That's all I'll say about that, though. You shall get no spoilers from me.

[prettysim104]

I have an idea!!! You could have Savannah have a long lost twin brother and he donates sperm!! Just clone her as a guy in create a sim!! That way, you still abide to the rules of the legacy and Savannah's looks are thrown in there!