#One of her sons is disabled and she used a surrogate to create another baby?

[coochiequeens]

Who's taking care if the baby while they are dealing with legal issues? Did the surrogacy agency find a nanny? Is the surrogate now performing childcare for them? Will they reimburse her for the extra time? How will this impact bonding when they finally get the kid they paid for?

Sam and Laura Kaitz are distraught parents trying to bring their baby home. The New Jersey couple told The Washington Post about their experience using a surrogacy broker and surrogacy agency to welcome their baby boy, Simon George Kaitz. The couple explored surrogacy outside of the United States because of costs and were connected with an agency in Mexico. Laura, a mom to two sons from a previous relationship, wanted another child with Sam, but pregnancy wasn't medically possible for her. The two nearly signed an agreement with a Ukrainian surrogate, another popular option for US couples looking for cost-effective surrogates, days before the Russian invasion of the country.

The ultimate appeal of the Mexican agency was the promise that both Laura and Sam, whose sperm was used with a donor egg, could be listed on the baby's birth certificate. "That was something she was very excited about being able to say, ‘I am his mother and nobody else,’” Sam said of Laura, 52, to The Washington Post.

Born on Tuesday, April 18, Simon was met by his dad in Mexico City, where he rented a place to stay, planning on bringing the infant home two days after their June 7 passport appointment at the US Embassy. However, getting the infant's documentation proved difficult. The couple had to go through Mexico's court system to get Laura's name on the birth certificate.

As they've tried to fight through bureaucratic paperwork, Laura, a property manager, has gone back and forth between New Jersey and Mexico so that she could also care for one of her sons, who is legally disabled, while Simon spent three weeks in the NICU in Mexico.

"It has been extremely stressful," Sam told the outlet, noting that Laura's other son, who has autism, “has said to her on more than one occasion that he doesn’t think that I care about him anymore because I’m down here and not with him and he feels abandoned, which breaks my heart because that is not true.” Most recently, Sam has been asked by the embassy to provide DNA for a DNA test to prove his relationship with Simon, noting to The Washington Post that the process has left them feeling "betrayed." Sam focuses on staying numb in the situation, noting, "If I don't, I will either break down or start screaming at someone.""And I cannot afford to feel right now. Not when Simon is depending solely on me."

[darkfalcon-z]

Red markings of a macaque

below are examples of red markings on the faces of rhesus macaques, featuring animals of different age, sex and social status from Kam Shan in Hong Kong. The images are not mine, I’ve provided the links to the videos I used to create this compilation. Some cool examples can be found using google search as well, you can easily found them. I also provide explanation on who are those individuals presented.

In some cases I include images of same monkeys from different angle or from different points in time - so you can see how those markings change.

The purpose of this post is to provide reference for people who want to draw monkeys and for people who looks for inspirations for their monkey based oc.

I hope you’ll find it interesting and helpful. I suspect most people does not care much to see through multiple videos of monkeys mostly just grooming and eating.

warnings:

- there is some mention of animal injury, but no image below shows an open wound (the markings mostly shown during mating period after all)

- this post is very long

I think this male is usually referred as “Mysterious Interloper,” he’s a lone bachelor visiting a troop for some free love. I think he’s red marks are quite striking.

different angle

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW-ImLQCoGw)

female known as “Reddy,” she is middle-aged and mid rank in one of the smaller troops (”Bossy’s”)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMJBQQi0lXs)

for the comparison this is her out of season

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRGii-gdoy8)

“Mr. Buff,” a lone bachelor, have not been seen for a while, he most likely just changed territories.

“Cocky,” used to be a dominant male in a small troop (”Bossy’s”) before he disappeared (he is presumed to be dead).

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVuw7zwv5Xw)

young, but fully matured, male “Barry,” he is the son of “Bossy” and most likely “Cocky,” it seems like he doesn’t seem to want to leave his natal troop

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilrfnHRZ_LQ)

two bachelors (their pouches are full)

an elderly gentleman known as “Grandee,”  he’s a dominant male in one of the smaller troops (”Bossy’s”). He is also a total sweetheart, he loves babies, he cares for babies even if they are not his own, he’ll babysit so moms can have breaks, he’ll scoop a baby if he sees a potential danger, he leaves a lot of crumbs when he eat so the babies can have some, there are usually babies and older daughters playing around him happily, he always reciprocates grooming, he’s gentle to the females as well, but apparently he can be quite a fighter when he needs to be. He has a slight disability as has trouble extending fingers and because of that he permanently “shows middle finger.” In conclusion he’s the best male out there (he was little down on luck on this video, but he have been restored to full glory since).

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb-N7oK2lhs)

this is him as well, outside the breeding season, hugging his son

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XitFoAvz7E)

“Alma” - a high ranking female from a smaller troop (”Annie’s”). I think she is even “Annie’s” daughter.

“Marilyn” - a leucistic female from a big troop (the “car park troop”), unlike other macaques she has clear nails (like humans), others adults have naturally dark nails. Individuals with leucism seem to always have low status (also it seems they are all girls). She is the favourite of the people visiting the car park, because of her beautiful lush golden fur). There are several other leucistic females in other troops in the area.  

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJa6q7yiZbU)

old, disabled  female (she is missing an arm and a tail) known as “Puppy mum,�� she is known to act as a surrogate mother despite her age, disability and low status in the troop (the “car park troop”)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7UUJjxU0Rc)

late dominant male of the “car park troop,” he is very old on the video and has passed away since, but not from the injury he has here on the other side of the head (you can see on the video - viewer’s discretion advised). that had actually healed very well, I could snap a shot, where his markings are better visible, but that injury was really not nice to see and I know a lot of people react to the sight injured animals way worse than I do.

this is him after he had healed (his ear is missing, though).

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8TMTJriE_A)

“Taggy” - a younger, subordinate, resident male in one of the smaller troops (”Bossy’s”) he’s named that because he used wear a collar that was supposed to send gps signals to the researchers to monitor the movement of the troop. Poor guy could not fill his pouched because of that. The tattoo indicates that he had a vasectomy, but it was probably botched. He has bad temper sometimes, but sometimes he watches over either his children or the children of his sister(s(?)) and makes sure no one bothers them. The hypothesis is that he comes’s form another small troop (”Annie’s”) and that his family sometimes comes to visit. He has been spotted grooming babies as well. He is probably dad to the several of “Reddy’s” children.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny0K1rt7TJQ)

a lone bachelor “white knight” - has silver fur because of some melamine imbalance

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoSEXFaEtA4)

“Stumpy” - young, one armed male, he managed to be a dominant male in a small troop (”Annie’s”) for a short time. And he was doing a very good job too. He used to play with the children of the troop sometimes, because he’s quite young himself. Unfortunately he was ousted and a bigger, meaner male, who was in possession of the complete set of limbs, took his place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY8LRNlgYAA

he gets to be even redder at the height of the season (yes this is the same male as on the picture above)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk8G3Z6_zZA)

and that’s more recent picture of him with a female friend from a bigger troop (head’s up, he is injured on that video).

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOgEORKP_sk)

“Bruce” - he’s old, he used to be a dominant male in one of the smaller troops (”Nora’s”), but was kicked out because he’s getting weaker. He is savvy in the monkey politics and it seems like his experience earned him a place in some other even tinier troop. Good for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSQ6wt22H7Q

“Skull Head” and “Sarah” from one of the bigger troops. “Sarah” is the queen of that troop. She is quite young but she had several children already. I’m not 100% what “Skull Head’s” status is now exactly. Him sitting next to the dominant female indicates that he is still the dominant male. You can probably guess that he is very old. He used to be in charge of a much bigger troop but it recently split up into at least two smaller ones, that are still mega in size. According to the person who posts those videos, this troop in “Skull Head’s” heyday used to be biggest in record for this species (over 400). Also that he was apparently the dominant male for close to 20 years, which is crazy since those animals usually around 20 years in the wild (some do live longer, thought, so it’s not impossible, oldest one Isako liven in Kyoto Zoo in Japan). I’m not sure where that information comes from and if it’s accurate. For the comparison Titus, the mountain gorilla, hold onto the power for 18 years (that is very well documented), and that’s the record in the gorilla world. Apparently in the rhesus world the dominant male stays is power on average for 2-3 years, but long reigns are not unheard of. I just wonder how does this work, because they are matrilineal, meaning the next dominant female is the daughter of the previous one (usually the youngest daughter at that). And the dominant male is always the father of the dominant female’s babies.

The person, who films those videos suggested that “Skull Head” had been deposed but allowed to stay with the troop, but given that he sits next to the queen in the middle of the breeding period like it’s nobody’s business and no younger male seems to have any problem with that, he still may be the king. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8MrCwmNFno

that’s “Skull Head” from another video

another lone bachelor looking for some free lovin’ (spoiler he didn’t get any, even though the female she was romancing seemed to be interested because the whole troop arrive and he was not bold enough to stay)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGoPkZNsSxQ

“Flöffi” - a young female who is just hitting puberty from one of the smaller troops (”Löwina’s”). I think she is 4 years old. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xegE9jH4DmA

“Pucky” - I think he’s a two year old (?). He lost his front teeth in some unknown incident. He’s a son of “Dolly” and probably “Grandee” (It seem like “Dolly” and “Grandee” had stable relationship even before “Grandee” became the dominant male in “Bossy’s” troop, which the all belong to - it seems like “Grandee” has several steady girlfriends). As you can see “Pucky” is very interested in the camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqqpL2vNjBY

- sometimes on the picture they have orange lips from the pollen of the flowers they eat at this time of the year (usually December - January).

I took the screenshots from videos on this channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGrXPQOAgvBrHUiOpHiwvVw. (the owner also has a website with more information about the monkeys he observes http://www.am360view.com/author/arrozmarisco/ ). I use the names Mr Arroz Marisco, the owner of this channel uses, but regular visitors have their own names they call those monkeys. Those are not the official names and other people may call them something different.

There is at least one the channel who post videos of Monkeys in Hong Kong https://www.youtube.com/user/montanachanify and you can check it out for references as well.

If you want to credit someone or link someone for the reference, please reference the videos by the original creators. Do not link or reference this post.

[klcthebookworm]

Reproduction in the GFFA

This post was inspired by a comment thread on @jedimordsith's The Gift Chapter Eighteen. I hope to spur a discussion or provide some meta and head-canons to help other creators in the fandom. Because I can't remember anyone discussing baby making before. Canon for this post are the original trilogy, prequels trilogy, and sequel trilogy. Clone Wars and Rebels television series are part of the canon, but I haven't watched either shows, so someone else will have to provide examples from them. EU Legends and Disney EU supplement the canon and will be cited so others can use those tidbits or set them aside according to their personal preferences. Everybody ready?

I'm writing this before the Last Jedi opens, so we are working with seven saga films and one anthology film. Out of those eight, only one character is shown pregnant and giving birth, Padmé Amidala. The only other character to talk about giving birth is Shmi Skywalker when talking about Anakin to Qui Gon Jinn. So the experiences of these two characters gives us natural reproduction according to their species. For the purposes of this discussion, natural reproduction means without the assistance of technology; sexual reproduction for humans and possibly many more alien species in the GFFA and potentially asexual reproduction as well though I don't have any examples in my memory. The Hutts were hermaphrodites in EU Legends, but according to Wookieepedia Disney EU has decided to divide that population along male and female now.

Even with the pregnancy examples, we the viewers aren't taken along on any medical check-ups to see what kind of assisted reproductive technology the GFFA has. In fact the fandom has wondered if it was lack of prenatal care that actually killed Padmé if her keeping her pregnancy secret extended to never seeing a medical droid or practitioner. But we shouldn't overlook the fourth parent shown in the prequels and how he got his child: Jango Fett and his clone son Boba.

As part of his compensation for being the genetic template for the clone army the Kaminoans created, Jango requested a clone who did not have the same genetic modifications such as behavioral conditioning and growth acceleration. We meet Boba as a ten-year-old child in Attack of the Clones, and presumably Jango has been raising Boba since he left the cloning tank as viable infant. My respect for Jango has gone up a notch; it's not easy to be a single parent no matter what galaxy you're in. And with this information, cloning tanks have to be added to a list of assisted reproductive technology the GFFA has.

But just because the technology exists doesn't mean it is available for the masses. Figures weren't quoted in the Attack of the Clones, but the Grand Army of the Republic was not cheap and the Kaminoans took ten years to grow and develop their clones for this purpose. Cost prohibitions can be inferred further by how the Imperial military moved into enlistment and conscription models to maintain stormtrooper numbers. I think we can safely say that the normal population of the GFFA couldn't afford to clone a baby even if the Empire did not restrict access to the technology. EU Legends developed a separate technology for cloning with the Spaarti cloning cylinders (invented by Timothy Zahn before George Lucas figured out what the Clone Wars were all about) that worked faster--a fully grown and trained clone in a year rather than ten--and could work even faster if the Force didn't interfere with the speed by making the clones mentally unstable. This technology was locked down by the Empire, and was thought destroyed since the Clone Wars by the rest of the population.

While we don't know how Jango Fett donated his genetics to the Kaminoans, all the adult clones were a physical copy of him on screen. But a plot point in EU Legends had a clone of Luke grown from his preserved severed hand. So how ever cloning works in the GFFA, it's not limited to gametes (sperm and ovum or whatever alien equivalents are).

So what about real assisted reproductive technologies? Are they present in the GFFA? We have no canon evidence of ultrasounds, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, or gestational surrogate pregnancy but it's hard to think that if we have all these things, they must have them too. After all they can replace limbs with fully-articulated prosthetic parts that can be permanently attached to the body.

Research time! While I didn't go much deeper than Wikipedia and Google searches (go deeper for sources if you're writing for a grade), I was surprised to learn that most of these things that are now ubiquitous with pregnancy are developments younger than I and A New Hope. Artificial insemination in humans turned out to be the oldest, first successfully done in 1884. Sperm banks started in Iowa in the 1920s, making donated sperm available for couples with fertility problems as well as women without male partners.

Medical ultrasounds developments started in 1940s in several countries. Professor Ian Donald, Tom Brown, and Dr. John MacVicar published their findings as "Investigation of Abdominal Masses by Pulsed Ultrasound" on June 7, 1958. Afterwards, they continued to refine their techniques to obstertic applications to measure the growth of the fetus at the Glasglow Royal Maternity Hospital and in the new Queen Mother's Hospital in Yorkhill. But it was only in the 1970s that the technology became widely used in American hospitals and further refinement has led to our ease of determining the sex of fetues. (https://www.livescience.com/32071-history-of-fetal-ultrasound.html). Before ultrasounds, detecting multiple fetal heartbeats was the only way to determine if there was more than one child but it is a more inaccurate process.

The first successful birth of a child from in vitro fertilization was in 1978. A woman carried the first successful gestational surrogate pregnancy in 1985. Surrogacy is a method or agreement whereby a woman agrees to carry a pregnancy for another person or persons, who will become the newborn child's parent(s) after birth. The next step is artificial wombs, which moved forward in 2017 with animal trials. It's aimed for helping a premature fetus develop normally rather than taking over the whole process. That is still in the realm of fiction.

Lois McMaster Bujold created uterine replicators for her Hugo-award-winning Vorkosigan Saga series. Star Wars fans you will like these books: space opera, exotic worlds and cultures, political intrigues, family dramas, strong women characters, and the main protagonist is disabled and keeps fighting to show his worth to his culture. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorkosigan_Saga) Genetic manipulation is commonplace, though of varying degrees of acceptance depending on the culture. The uterine replicators are essential to this process because it allows complete in vitro human reproduction. The embryo and fetus can be genetically modified as benign as just removing a genetic disease so it is finally eradicated to controlling the sex and appearance of the fetus, which led to the creation of the Quaddies. The freedom and safety this technology provides is also a plot point in the series since Miles' disabilities are the result of poisoning his mother went through while pregnant. His cousin Ivan--while born naturally perfectly healthy--was nearly murdered in the womb when his parents were caught by a rebelling faction during a civil war. The other nifty factor is they can use any cell from the parents to create the embryo, though gametes are the easiest to work with, and donated oocyte if there is no ovum from the mother. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep) for how that works.)

I came to the Vorkosigan Saga after Star Wars, so my light bulb was phrased "uterine replicators are just like Star Wars cloning tanks!" The technology is virtually identical, the only difference being parents' blended DNA instead of creating a copy of the donor. I'm head-canoning that this exists in the Star Wars universe as assisted reproductive technology, probably with a different name to keep it separate from cloning and probably priced out of financial reach for most of the population in GFFA. I haven't coined a Star Wars-ish name for it, so suggest away please.

Besides allowing for reproduction for infertile, same-sex, or extremely-unable-to-accommodate-pregnancy couples, this technology allows for hybrid babies between two species that are unable to reproduce naturally. I can't think of any examples of this in pro-fic (Wedge had a non-human girlfriend for a bit but she got shunted off-stage pretty quickly), but this is a situation that we fanfic-writers love to exploit and fill-in-the-gaps. It's an option along with the ones we covered that we can use right now in real life.

Thank you for sticking with me to the end of this long look at reproduction in the GFFA and our own galaxy. I've gained a new point of view considering this topic and the films. Lucas not putting in what turned out to be cutting edge technology in the original trilogy of his space opera, I can give him a pass on. It wasn't necessary for the story he was telling Padmé skipping prenatal check-ups to keep her pregnancy a secret from the Jedi Order can explain the lack of knowledge that she's carrying twins but only to a certain point. How come all the Force users around Padmé missed it? The only good explanation I've got is the twins kept hiding each other in the Force from all the other Force users, and Obi-Wan and Yoda were too polite to scan her. Did Stover come up with a reason in the novelization? I still need to read it. Share your thoughts please. :D