Children of Women

German scientists have announced that they have created immature sperm cells from human bone marrow samples. They took adult stem cells from within the bone marrow are differentiated them into spermatagonial cells - cells found in the testes which would normally develop into mature sperm cells. The procedure would allow both lesbian couples, and men who are sterile or have lost their marbles, to have children that are their genetic offspring. If this technique is successful, testicles would no longer be necessary for sperm production, and therefore reproduction. It would mean the extinction of the human male.

You probably think that last line was a joke. After all, even if men were to become unnecessary for reproduction, that doesn't mean that women would wipe us out, right? And they wouldn't intentionally. But it will happen.

Let's have some fun with Punnett squares and statistics. Normal reproduction between a female (XX) and a male (XY) creates females half the time and males half the time. Reproduction between two females (XX and XX) would only create females. The next generation would have slightly more females then men. Assuming that the rate of homosexuality is constant, a slightly higher concentration of females would mean a slightly higher concentration of lesbians and more female-female reproduction. Each generation would have a higher concentration of females and a lower concentration of males. If the human population ever reaches a limit, then the number of men would eventually drop to zero.

Sure, men could just keep having children until they had a son, ensuring that men won't die out. But that son could die before he had his own son, or he could be gay. Sure, we could develop a way to make eggs from male bone marrow, allowing two males to reproduce. But that would create female offspring a third of the time, and the scales would still tip to the women.

The only way to prevent men from being wiped out would be to allow heterosexual couples to choose sons over daughters, or to not allow people to choose their mates. Of course both of these policies are currently in limited use today, and would likely increase if this scenario ever plays out, so the survival of the Y chromosome is safe for now and my crazy prediction of men dying out likely won't happen. But to any women reading this (and I suppose there could be one or two): I hope you appreciate having us around now to kill bugs and open jars, because we may not be around forever.