Sperm

Reproductive technology has come a long way in the last twenty years and continues to make expansive advances. The question "where do babies come from" is becoming harder and harder to answer. The response used to sound something like "when a man and a woman love each other very much…" now with in vitro fertilization, fertility drugs, and sperm/egg donors as well as future advances the answer will take on a new twist "…they go to see a doctor and look through a catalog to pick what kind of baby they want."

There are many ways for a woman to get pregnant but the most common way is were the sperm makes a journey between the bodies of a man and woman during unprotected sexual intercourse. The sperm’s journey starts at the testicles, which start producing sperm at the start of puberty. When a man ejaculates during sexual intercourse around 250 million sperm cells that are stored in the testicles get pushed through the tube, vas deferens and then are mixed with fluids from the the prostate gland and seminal vesicle. Then all of the combined fluids pass the males urethra and then enter the female reproductive system in hopes of impregnating the female.

When sperm fertilizes an egg, conception occurs. For conception to occur the sperm and egg must meet. This is a story about how Bob, the sperm and Mary, the egg meet for the first time. The moment Bob and Mary come together a new individual is formed. Mary's was produced at the time she was in a fetus's ovaries. It has been over 23 years since she and five million others like her were produced. It is an exciting day for Mary because unlike all the others she was chosen to meet Bob. Bob also feels awesome today because unlike all the other millions of sperm discharged, he was the only one that made it to the finish and met Mary. The beginning of Bob and Mary's story starts when they

Pregnancy is a nine month process and it starts when the sperm penetrates an egg. One and a half days later the single fertilised egg begins to divide. After two to three days there are enough new cells to make the egg the size of a pin head.

Biological development of a fetus is vary rapid and complex over the nine-month period in the womb. When both the male spermatozoon and the female ovum combine it forms what is called a zygote which holds the twenty-three pairs of chromosomes. The zygote or the embryo undergoes cell division and makes its way to the uterine wall to implant itself, this process is completed about ten days after conception. By the end of the eighth week the organ systems have formed and human characteristics can start to be noticed. From the eighth week until birth the embryo is now labeled a fetus. Quickening can occur from the sixteenth week until birth, this is where the mother can feel the fetus moving. Around the twenty-second week viability can take place, this is where the fetus can survive outside the womb. The nine-month period of being pregnant is split into different trimesters. With the different trimesters there are different abortion procedures can be used to remove the fetus.

Even the language of conception and gestation have been hijacked by politics and religious fundamentalists. All unborn are called “fetuses.” This clearly shows the ignorance of basic human biology. The newly fertilized egg is a zygote --- not a fetus and not a human being. It is a few cells with potential but no distinguishing characteristics and no ability to feel anything. A zygote becomes a blastocyst, which is a zygote that has reached a certain number of cells but has not yet stuck to the uterine walls. Five weeks after conception, snug in the uterine tissue it becomes an embryo. It does not become a fetus until it is ten weeks old and has ears and some facial features. Society laughs at people who call zebras “horses” and yet tolerates the word fetus for zygote, blastocyst and embryo. Getting the language right can help laypeople realize that a zygote or blastocyst is not a baby.

eggs will essentially mature. Contrary to women, a man begins producing sperm at puberty, which gradually decreases along with age. During the actual conception, over 200 million sperms head towards the egg and try to break through. One is successful, the rest aren’t.

should come from the ground or have a mother, should be our rule when it comes to

When I was young I did not know where babies came from, just like the rest of us. I use to believe everything my parents told me about babies for example that they came from storks or that you bought them at a baby store. It wasn’t until I was about 12 or 13 when I found out the truth on the biggest mystery I had, the truth about where babies really came from.

This is what potentially creates the baby. After 3 weeks of being fertilized, the embryo is less than 1/10 of an inch. The heart of the baby is now beating. At 4 weeks it is about 1/5 of an inch long. It now has a tale that is its back bone that will disappear in a few weeks. Genes are being turned on and cells are able to talk through chemical messages. 18 weeks after being fertilized, the baby is able to be viewed through an ultra sound and in some cases, able to determine the sex of the baby. The embryo is enabled with two sets of gonads and two sets of tubes which is what can make the baby either a male or female. One pair of chromosomes determines which sex that baby will be. After 29 weeks, it is now a fetus and just over an inch long. The fetus heart beats about twice as many times as an adult heart. There is a 50% increase in blood supply for the mother. Now the mother is ready to give birth. Human births are actually more dangerous than any other mammal. The baby preforms many contortions to fit through the mother's opening and if not able to be born through vaginal birth, the mother will undergo a "C" section. After nine months of carrying another human being inside her stomach and going through labor and painful child birth, the mother is blessed with a beautiful child.

Due to modern medicine, there are many ways that pregnant women can now see how their fetus is growing inside them. The woman’s egg travels down the fallopian tube entering the uterus. It is fertilized by the sperm and its home for the next nine months. There is a long process before the baby arrives into the mother's arms. This is the beginning of conception and the development of the baby.

Conception: Out of hundreds of eggs and millions of sperm, only one egg and sperm join together at conception. This process takes place in women fallopian tube. The fertilised egg moves to towards uterus to implant in it for next nine months. During this journey, the zygote divides into 12 to 16 cells before reaching the uterus.

The first premise states that a fetus is an early stage in becoming a human. It all starts with conception. When the sperm meets the egg, the combination is called a zygote. The zygote contains all of the genetic information (DNA) needed to become a baby. Half the DNA comes from the mother's egg and half from the father's sperm. The zygote then travels down the fallopian tube, in which, it forms a ball of cells called a blastocyst. The blastocyst is composed of an inner group of cells with an outer shell. The inner group of cells will become the embryo which is what will develop into a fetus. The fetus is the stage of development up until birth. Of course, after birth you have an infant, then a toddler, then a preschooler, then middle childhood, teenagers, and lastly adulthood. All of which came to be from a mere zygote.

Martin, after careful consideration and researching in unique methods, comes to an overall conclusion that there are cultural influences in the way egg and sperm interactions are presented in textbooks. This conclusion has many serious

the egg and the sperm and the contrast between the reproductive organs. Martin illustrated the