Modern Mysteries

Are virgin births possible ?

By T.K. Randall
August 17, 2012 ·  32 comments

Image Credit: sxc.hu In one of the most famous cases of an alleged virgin birth, Jones responded to an invite in the Pictorial newspaper for a project aimed at finding women who believed that they had conceived through parthenogenesis, a rare biological process in which an egg was said to begin dividing inside the female without being fertilized. Both Jones and her daughter underwent a series of tests along with a number of other candidates but before long found themselves to be the only ones left.

At the time it was decided that the only way to know for sure if this was a genuine virgin birth was to perform a skin graft from mother to daughter and vice versa, doctors believed that if the graft was accepted then it would indicate for certain that her daughter was fatherless. Crucially however the skin graft test failed and the Jones' case faded in to obscurity.

In the years that followed science went on to reveal that parthenogenesis in humans is a biological impossibility, putting an end to the virgin birth concept once and for all.[!gad]In one of the most famous cases of an alleged virgin birth, Jones responded to an invite in the Pictorial newspaper for a project aimed at finding women who believed that they had conceived through parthenogenesis, a rare biological process in which an egg was said to begin dividing inside the female without being fertilized. Both Jones and her daughter underwent a series of tests along with a number of other candidates but before long found themselves to be the only ones left.

At the time it was decided that the only way to know for sure if this was a genuine virgin birth was to perform a skin graft from mother to daughter and vice versa, doctors believed that if the graft was accepted then it would indicate for certain that her daughter was fatherless. Crucially however the skin graft test failed and the Jones' case faded in to obscurity.

In the years that followed science went on to reveal that parthenogenesis in humans is a biological impossibility, putting an end to the virgin birth concept once and for all.

Source: Telegraph | Comments (32)

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