Human females with a variety of endocrine/gynaecological problems are all too often informed by medics that "having a baby will prbably fix it".
The problem is, of course, what to do with the baby afterwards.
What is needed is a placebo placenta; an organic structure derived from one of the bearer's modified ova, that implants in the uterine wall, generates all the necessary homonal signals, grows to a manageable size, and is then either expelled or removed by a "caesarian" section.
This would be produced by harvesting an egg, implanting a highly modified copy of the host's DNA in place of the existing half-copy, and releasing it into the fallopian tube, accompanied by (if necessary) systemic hormonal stimuli.
The developing placenta will - unfortunately - generate many of the unwanted side effects of pregnancy, but after completion of the process will result in a permanent stabilisation of the carrier's endocrine functions.-- 8th of 7, Aug 20 2010 There is such a thing as a hydatidiform mole, where pregnancy develops without a foetus. It has a one in twenty chance of becoming cancerous. It's not good.-- nineteenthly, Aug 21 2010 Wasn't this a feature of Aldous Huxley's _Brave_New_World_? Or maybe it was Orwell's _1984_. Somebody like that had a mention of a woman who was inducing a false pregnancy. I haven't read either book for decades, and have no urge to do so again. Though maybe I should.
Their method was just hormone injections, I think, so this is a little different.
This sounds like gene-tampering to make a mutant that miscarries, so [-].-- baconbrain, Aug 21 2010 It happens now but it's pathological. It seems to be the result of purely male nuclear DNA, and i think it's triploid. One way of looking at it might be to see the molar pregnancy as a brainless human individual with a high risk of malignancy which needs to be cured somehow, but that would usually mean surgery, cancer chemotherapy or radiotherapy, all of which would be pretty definitely worse than the disease.-- nineteenthly, Aug 21 2010 Dang, [8th], there for a minute I thought you were channeling Beanie again. Bun for that. [+]-- Grogster, Aug 21 2010 // a brainless human individual with a high risk of malignancy //
So that's where traffic wardens come from ...-- 8th of 7, Aug 22 2010 random, halfbakery