Got this from another chat board.........and I found it very helpful to come to terms with the idea of DE. Hope that it helps others.
Epigenetics - Importance of Birth Mother
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An article about epigenetics that referred to the influence of the birth mother on the genetic make up of a child born from donor eggs. .....
Genes must be ‘expressed’ within an individual in order to have an
effect.
The same gene or genes can express in a number of different ways
depending upon the environment. A gene can remain ’silent’ or
unexpressed; it can be expressed strongly; it can be expressed weakly,
and so on. There is also an entire field of study called imprinting
having to do with which gene you ‘activate,’ the copy you received from
your mother, or the copy you received from your father.
The field of epigenetics studies these phenomenon, and popular
journalism is just starting to write about it. While the Human Genome
Project was still underway, we usually heard genes referred to as ‘the
Bible’ of the human being, as a kind of absolute truth concerning the
fundamental nature of the individual.
That is now changing.
In a donor egg pregnancy, the pregnant woman’s womb is the environment.
It is her genes, not the donor’s, that determine the expression of the
donor-egg baby’s genes.
A donor egg baby gets her genes from the donor; she gets the
‘instructions’ on the expression of those genes from the woman who
carries her to term.
This means that a donor egg baby has 3 biological parents: a father, the
egg donor, and the woman who carries the pregnancy.
The child who is born would have been a physically & no doubt
emotionally different person if carried by his genetic mother.
In horse breeding for example, it’s not uncommon to implant a pony
embryo into the womb of a horse.
The foals that result, are different from normal ponies.
They’
re bigger. These animals’ genotype – their genes – are the same as a
pony’s, but their phenotype – what their genes actually look like in the
living animal – is different.
........
The implication of epigenetics is that the child inherits characteristics from the woman who carries the child even if the original DNA comes from a donor egg. In other words the birth mother influences what the child is like at a genetic level - it IS her child.
Much love
Carolyn
xxxxx