First Pregnant Man

evawhite on June 30th, 2008

So science fiction is now science fact, the ridiculous has become real and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Junior not so preposterous after all! Take a look at Fox news reporting on the pregnant man, something that is routinely viewed as a paradox, a contradiction of terms:

Thomas Beatie was born a woman (Tracy), then he Tran-gendered into a man by having reconstructive surgery to remove the breasts and taking testosterone hormone injections to grow facial hair and develop other male characteristics. OK so far, familiar enough story: Tran-gendering from one to another sex is getting less shocking and more common. But Thomas chose to keep the reproductive organs he was born with (I don’t know about the genitalia and was somewhat queasy to find out about that, so I didn’t). So since his wife Nancy (I think she was born a woman) could not bear children Thomas decided to go ahead and get pregnant by artificial insemination and is now expecting to give birth to his daughter soon. Here is a clip of him featured on Oprah:

This is apparently not the only instance of a man being pregnant; Mr. Lee Mingwei is also another famous pregnant man, who has elicited the following extreme reactions: One woman is quoted as having said: “This is against God. Mr. Lee is a sick man. Repent now before it’s too late. You sick, sick people. God will pay you back for this evil you have created. REPENT! REPENT!” another woman, herself pregnant was quoted as having said, “Go, Mr. Lee! All my prayers and best wishes to you. I’m so happy for you and your baby. I am six months pregnant myself, and I completely understand how excited you are to be going through this amazing process. Have a happy and healthy pregnancy.”

Another man is quite envious of the concept of a pregnant man and is quoted as having said, “I’ve dreamed about this my entire life. Sign me up! I think I’d be a fantastic father in every way possible. And now I can participate in literally every step of my child’s life … from the embryo on up!”

As of now though, there does not appear to be anyway that a man, who was born a man, can have children, so it is not as if we can as yet decide which one from among a conventional husband and wife can choose to have a baby.

While this is fairly shocking and somewhat unsettling simply because of the unfamiliarity of the concept for me, what Thomas says in that Oprah video gave me pause for thought: “its not a male or female desire to have a child, it is a human desire”. That it is, and for what it is worth, I wish these men a safe and healthy pregnancy and birthing.

Bookmark to:

Tags: birth, first pregnant man, pregnancy, pregnant man, Thomas Beatie
Read More Comments (6) Uncategorized