symbiote01 wrote:1. The actual procedure would involve a great deal of time and effort to soften and stretch the animal to enter. The subject, too would need to be conditioned to survive in a very cramped condition. Such a thing, in real life, would endanger both host and subject (chance of rupture, chance of infection, chance of suffocation, etc.) and would be morally reprehensible. But for the purpose of hypothetical discussion, given enough time, it probably could be done.
agreed, Hypothetically possible, but would take a great deal of care, planning and monitoring.
i'm not going to enter the moral reprehensibility discussion because those tend to be at best a absurdly touchy subject and not only enters into the fringes where this discussion should be closed but also could potentially destroy the discussion or lead it off on a tangent that would also destroy the discussion so lets just stick to the science ok?
symbiote01 wrote:2,3. These are vestigial organs of the fetus, not the mother. This would require genetic manipulation of the subject to spontaneously grow a new placenta, umbilical cord and amniotic sac. Such a thing is not really feasible in real life as far as I know. If there IS research into this subject, it would certainly fall into the 'morally reprehensible' category and be a deterrent to proper, useful research of this kind (stem cell, etc.).
Had Not realized that about the placenta, umbilical cord and amniotic sac myself, in that case such a thing "could" Technically be grown to suit (I have seen videos about that), the remaining problem would be in getting the umbilical cord attached and functional, Possible but I agree not very feasible (at least now).
at the same time I am not sure on how this would affect research of this kind, it could go the other way, it could be applied for eg to technology's to transplant fetuses or grow them artificially in certain medical emergency's where the fetus would otherwise die.
symbiote01 wrote:4,5. The subject would need to be genetically modified to be accepted by the host. It might be necessary to genetically modify the host as well, to find some 'common ground'. This currently has the potential to be in the realm of scientific possibility (human ears grown on the back of rats, goats that have spider silk in their milk, human hearts grown in a pig uterus, etc.).
Would Need to be Genetically modified to be accepted? Not necessarily in my opinion, for eg recipients of transplanted organs (some of which are from animals) in most cases have no rejection problems due to the anti-rejection medications they are prescribed, also, their are other potential methods you could use to "trick" the the system into ok'ing everything but they are incredibly theoretical and would take to long to write out at the moment.
symbiote01 wrote:From a 'real life' point of view, it is very much too dangerous a thing to consider, both for host and subject. At this time, it could only end in tragedy.
this discussion is not entering into that perspective, i would like to keep it is still mostly fantasy based, so please don't go there.
on the Danger factor, it would depend on the level of technology, science, etc that is available, would it be dangerous? yes, how dangerous? unknown.
symbiote01 wrote:Now, if this conversation was about the concept of manipulating a creature to be able to carry offspring of another species- this is a fairly hot topic right now. There are scientists out there trying to re-create an extinct species (woolly mammoth) using an elephant as a surrogate, for example. In this case, the two are different but closely related species.
that is actually part of the basis of this.