What Would Trip's Reaction Be To "Test Tube" Contraception?

[ginamr]

Just so you know, by "test tube" contraception, I mean using that cylindrical container like phlox used for sim.

Personally, I would think after Baby Elizabeth and based on his very traditional approach to a number of things, Trip would find an artificial womb to be weird and even downright unnatural. I feel that he'd want the pregnancy to be as natural as possible.

What does everyone else think?

[justTripn]

Well I 100 percent disagree. Trip would have T'Pol's health formost in mind. See my stories "Heresy" (where Lorian was born in the test tube contraption that Phlox used for Porthos and Sim) and "Reunion" and "Brainstorm" (where he is against T'Pol trying a natural method because it endangers her health).

Also he might back off and defer to T'Pol if she had her mind made up.

[Lady Rainbow]

I think he'd consult w/T'Pol and they'd make the decision together. After all, it takes two.

And I think a lot of it would depend on the circumstances at the time. But I don't think either would consider "test tube" unnatural, as long as it helps ensure the baby would survive and be healthy.

[Alelou]

Trip is an engineer. I can't imagine him being prejudiced against using a piece of equipment that might help him and T'Pol achieve parenthood.

[honeybee]

When you think about how many babies are born today through IVF, in the future artificial means of conception and birth will probably evolve into the norm. And realistically, it might be difficult for T'Pol to carry a child with iron blood or something of that nature - so I think in order to be parents, they would be open to whatever technology they needed to help them have a healthy baby.

[pdsldl]

I always think any couple who want their own child would gratefully opt for any kind of conception as long as the mother and child are healthy. There's a big difference between test tube baby and cloning. Trip may want a family but what good is that if it puts mother and child at risk if Phlox could even find a way to make an in womb pregnancy possible. I would think it would require extensive in utero surgery and procedures to correct and DNA/genetic issues whereas a out of womb pregnancy accessible and has the highest degree of success. He would not risk T'Pol or the baby so I can't see him being against a test tube.

[Aquarius]

Contraception? Or conception?

[Distracted]

I wondered that, too. But I think she means conception.

I don't think Trip would have an issue with it, since I don't find the idea of natural conception between different species of humanoids even remotely believable. In my version of ST biology, anyone with any clue about how babies are made would realize that Vulcans and humans couldn't conceive any other way.

[honeybee]

I tend to agree, Distracted. Although, I put logic aside when writing Dusk - because it was the key to the whole plot that T'Pol get pregnant accidentally. I did do a few backflips to try and explain it - as well as asserting that the baby was genetically primarily Vulcan so T'Pol could carry it to term. But I am not going to argue with anyone who doesn't buy that could happen.

In my E2, story, I had the baby be conceived and carried the old fashioned way - but Phlox was of course required to aid in the the process - both in making sure the conception could happen and seeing to it the she could carry the baby to term. Basically, he gave them both drugs (right before her pon farr cycle) to make a conception possible. Could this happen? Not now, for certain. But perhaps in the future.

[Transwarp]

I feel that he'd want the pregnancy to be as natural as possible.

I have to agree, but the qualifier 'as natural AS POSSIBLE' is the fly in the ointment. He would (together with T'Pol) weigh all the options against the odds of success and the threats to the health of T'Pol and the baby. He would opt for the one that maximized success and minimized risk, and would not bat an eye if it meant using Phlox's cylinder (after it had been suitably sterilized to remove all traces of Beagle DNA, of course).

I even think (if for some reason they could not have a child that was genetically theirs) they would consider adoption. I have been mulling over that as a concept for a future story, once I get the Romulan war out of the way, but right now it's nothing more than a vague concept.

I put logic aside when writing Dusk - because it was the key to the whole plot that T'Pol get pregnant accidentally. I did do a few backflips to try and explain it

Honeybee, just so you know, the backflips worked. I am firmly in the 'no natural conception between species is possible' camp, but it is not an issue as long as the author recognizes the problem and explains it. I sailed quite happily through that part of your story.

[Aquarius]

I haven't voted, but I say Trip's reaction has a few phases.

First, the decision to even have a child: he probably wants them, but it wouldn't be a deal-breaker either way. So if T'Pol wanted them, he'd do everything in his power to make that happen.

Now, for the aspect of the mechanics/logistics of having a bi-species kid, Trip would still want to do whatever it takes so for the sake of healthy mom and baby, if an artificial womb is needed, so be it. He may express things like "I never thought it was going to be this way," or whatever, but he wouldn't be against it.

That said, while it's unlikely from a scientific "real world" standpoint that T'Pol would be able to carry a hybrid baby to term, I would rely a little more heavily on the "fiction" element of "science fiction" in order to give her a baby bump. I would love to see something "normal" happen to them after such a rough start to their relationship.

[Distracted]

I tend to agree, Distracted. Although, I put logic aside when writing Dusk - because it was the key to the whole plot that T'Pol get pregnant accidentally. I did do a few backflips to try and explain it - as well as asserting that the baby was genetically primarily Vulcan so T'Pol could carry it to term. But I am not going to argue with anyone who doesn't buy that could happen.

In my E2, story, I had the baby be conceived and carried the old fashioned way - but Phlox was of course required to aid in the the process - both in making sure the conception could happen and seeing to it the she could carry the baby to term. Basically, he gave them both drugs (right before her pon farr cycle) to make a conception possible. Could this happen? Not now, for certain. But perhaps in the future.

I don't think current science could create an in-vivo (in the mother's body rather than in the lab) cross-species conception no matter what drugs were available. With drugs you can stimulate ovulation, suppress the mother's immune system to prevent rejection of a fetus with foreign antigens, supply necessary nutrients/chemicals the mother doesn't have and the fetus needs, etc... but drugs can't force incompatible chromosomes to combine to form a viable embryo. I might possibly believe a lab-assisted conception (in a lab where chromosomal manipulation is possible) and subsequent implantation of the resultant embryo into T'Pol, but accidental conception isn't a possibility in my book. Such a pregnancy would have an extraordinarily high risk of miscarriage because the mom's body would treat the fetal tissue as foreign. T'Pol would have to be on immune suppressants, which would put her at risk for serious infection and maybe even malignancy. Unless, of course, we assume that humans and Vulcans are even more closely related genetically than humans and chimps. That assumption seems unlikely to me, given the Vulcans' copper-based blood and such, and there's no telling what the kid would be like. Look at horses and donkeys, for example. They're different sub-species but both equines. Spontaneous pregnancies are possible but the offspring are sterile. Of course, since Spock has no children in canon, we really don't know if human/Vulcan hybrids are mules, do we?

[crystalswolf]

Okay, I have no desire to try and explain the impossible but for those that do, here's a thought. What if the bond causes T'Pol to somehow "adjust" for reproduction. It has been the explain-all for creating a telepathic bond with a non telepathic human (I don't remember the how of it ever explained) and protect him from biological warfare (Orions). Because humans and Vulcans are hinted to be linked genetically, it wouldn't be a huge amount of changes.

[pdsldl]

The bond would have to do alterations on the genetic level making them neither Vulcan or Human if that were to oocur. Not sure they want to create a new species because a Vulcan and Human bonded.

[crystalswolf]

The idea that you genetically alter one group of cells you will alter all cells never made sense to me. Each group of cells function differently (as far as my limited understanding) and so its more likely that when you alter one section, other sections could be uneffected (liver cells are not the same as heart cells are not the same as brain cells, etc.). T'Pol's body could adjust the DNA of her eggs while not changing anything else.