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Not according to this article which mentions that sex chromosomes that lead to differentiation between male and female in the sorts of animals we eventually derived from actually evolved 145 or so million years ago.

Once again, the way the world actually appears to be contradicts Joseph Smith's "male/female mammal god throughout all eternity" worldview.

What happened to Jane is a much rarer. Rather than a simple exchange of blood, she and her fraternal twin merged in utero, leaving only one fetus. The cells in her body are a mosaic of genes from both of the original embryos. The cheek cells from which the genetic testing was done were from one of those embryos, but at least some of the cells in her ovaries came from the other.
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Many human chimeras show no overt signs of their condition. Others have more obvious physical findings. Doctors at the University of Edinburgh in 1998 had a patient referred to them for an undescended left testicle. However, when they examined him they could not find a second testicle. Instead they found something quite unexpected, an ovary and a fallopian tube. Their patient was a chimera formed from the fusion of male and female embryos. While this is a dramatic finding, most chimeras show more subtle signs, such as mismatched eyes, or parti-colored hair.

You're making excuses again.

Boy Seth you are really going to look dumb and eat your words when the US puts a colony on the moon and find a bunch of folk already there about 6 feet tall and dressing like Quakers. Just wait and see!

Danna wrote:I have never heard a christian apologist explain why there are human chimeras, especially male/female chimeras. What sex is a human male/female chimera.

Here is a brief overview:

What happened to Jane is a much rarer. Rather than a simple exchange of blood, she and her fraternal twin merged in utero, leaving only one fetus. The cells in her body are a mosaic of genes from both of the original embryos. The cheek cells from which the genetic testing was done were from one of those embryos, but at least some of the cells in her ovaries came from the other.
...
Many human chimeras show no overt signs of their condition. Others have more obvious physical findings. Doctors at the University of Edinburgh in 1998 had a patient referred to them for an undescended left testicle. However, when they examined him they could not find a second testicle. Instead they found something quite unexpected, an ovary and a fallopian tube. Their patient was a chimera formed from the fusion of male and female embryos. While this is a dramatic finding, most chimeras show more subtle signs, such as mismatched eyes, or parti-colored hair.

And as twins become more common, we will get more chimeras in the future. Not only from IVF, but as twinning becomes more surviveable, natural rates will increase as well. I have not seen figures for human chimeras, but if 8% of fraternal twins are blood chimeras, it may be a lot more common than we realise to get embryos fusing. It is only where a chimera has mixed sex organs (i.e. ovaries and a penis) that it really gets noticed. For all we know Thomas Monson could be a male/female mix.

A person with both male and female sex organs is in an obviously confusing position. In many cases it can be due to developmental conditions, and the person's DNA is either XX or XY. But a chimera is BOTH XX in some places and XY in others.

What gender is a chimera's 'spirit'? Organs themselves can be a mosaic of DNA types. So it is not possible to say that the brain determines 'actual' sex.

And where the brain itself is a mosaic of two different DNAs (even XX and XY), the original source would have been two separate embyros. After combination both donors are contributing to the personality, a 'thought' could involve interaction between neurons from both donors. What does this say about sex, gender, the spirit, and 'unsoulment'?

What is the status of a chimera with a genetically male brain (XY), but the body and reproductive organs of a genetic woman (XX)? And yes, this really happens.

So, come the millennium, if you were presiding over the priesthood panel delegated to 'sort out' a chimera with a mosaic brain and sex organs, what would you do?

squawkeye wrote:Boy Seth you are really going to look dumb and eat your words when the US puts a colony on the moon and find a bunch of folk already there about 6 feet tall and dressing like Quakers. Just wait and see!