Mocumentary explores same-sex human reproduction using stem cells

The new Canadian film The Baby Formula involves two lesbians who become pregnant using sperm developed from each other’s stem cells. The plot sounds like science fiction, but we are closer to realizing this type of family building than many of us can imagine.

Canadian news source, Times & Transcript explains: Stem cells are like the body’s blueprint, giving rise to all the different cells that make up an organism, from the skin and organs to the brain, bone and blood. Harnessing them as factories to produce specialized cells to repair or regrow tissues is the great hope of regenerative medicine.

In 2006, Dr. Karim Nayernia of Newcastle University generated sperm from male embryonic stem cells that fertilized female mice and produced offspring. A year later, his team was able to derive primitive sperm from stem cells taken from the bone marrow of human males. Since then, Nayernia’s group has been working on creating sperm from women’s bone marrow stem cells.

Variety publishes a positive review of the film: When married Toronto gals Athena (Angela Vint) and Lilith (Megan Fahlenbock) tell their extended families about their “immaculate” conceptions, the news triggers other revelations that ultimately result in them becoming a closer, more loving bunch. Reid, who appears on camera as helmer of the video docu, includes lively footage from Toronto’s Gay Pride parade, and for a finale, the first Christmas with the newborn babes. Hilarious end-credits sequence of heavily pregnant Vint and Fahlenbock doing a lip-synch dance to the Black Eyed Peas song “My Humps” keeps viewers in their seats.

Image: Times & Transcript