Thomas Beatie, above, became America’s first transgender male mom in 2008.

A man in his thirties has given birth to a healthy child, in what is Britain’s first “male mother” case in recorded history. The man, whose name has not been made public, was born a woman but underwent a sex change as an adult. The news has been met with much tsking from Brits, wondering whether the kid’s going to call him “Mummy” or “Daddy”.

While there are still question marks about how impregnation took place (did he artificially inseminate himself at home like America’s first male mom, Thomas Beatie did in 2008? Did he have hormone treatment?) It’s clear that the man retained his/her womb during the sex change procedure, and had inquired about the possibility of having a child prior to the op when he was still medically a woman.

Of course there are those who care less about how the man managed to have the child, and far more about how the  kid is going to deal with the confusion. Trevor Stammers, a lecturer in medical ethics and former chairman of the Christian Medical Fellowship, is very concerned about the child’s “bizarre beginning”.

“You are hardly going to end up with a baby that is going to have a happy, productive and optimal childhood.” Possibly a bit premature to make that comment Trev, but other groups seem to agree.

Spokesperson for the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, Josephine Quintavalle, says, “Whether we like it or not, human biology is for a male and female to produce a child and they are then called Mummy and Daddy.

“If there is one thing that is uniformly agreed about children, it is that they like conformity, they like to be exactly the same as everybody else.”

Sweeping statements aside, this is a good debate topic to throw out at your next dinner party.

[Source: IOL]