Morphing while pregnant and other things

[SkyMorpher]

I bet no one's ever asked this one. What if someone had grown older and gotten pregnant...they couldn't morph then because of the baby could they? The baby would get sucked into zspace and probable die right? Just me pondering.

I'd love to know how morphing affects female things...it'd be sweet if we could morph and not have to go through things every month lol.

I would like to know what would have happened if one of the group had ever broken an arm or leg while their parents were around...we know they could morph and fix it but the parents would take them to the hospital and get it casted obviously if they saw it...how would they manage to keep up the charade for a while? Casts probably aren't easy to slip in and out of (never had one myself) and it can't just disappear, the parents would know...

[Chad32]

I think the pregnancy thing has been brought up.

As for breaking limbs while the parents are around, the thought that comes to mind is having one of the Chee pose as *insert Animorph name* with a broken arm/leg. That way the person can heal through morphing, and continue fighting, while remaining incognito. Bones take months to heal, though. And there could be other complications.

[goom]

I think the pregnancy thing has been brought up.

i think it was brought up in here (http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,823.0.html), but it's fine.

[EmberGryphon]

As far as I know (insert correction from smarter user here <3) pregnancy isn't determined by DNA. I mean, the ova has your DNA (half of it, that is) but when the other gamete comes into play and there's zygote action, it's something completely different. Your DNA cannot rebuild another organism. I'd think it'd be... um, gone-ified.

[Phoenix004]

No way to know for sure, but I would assume that if you morphed while pregnant you would lose the baby. I know I wouldn't want to risk it unless I knew for sure.

As for the bone breaking thing, they obviously never broke any bones during the series. If they did and it happened when their parent's were around, they'd have to pretend it wasn't a serious injury and then morph when nobody was around.

[ThinkAgain]

If they did and it happened when their parent's were around, they'd have to pretend it wasn't a serious injury and then morph when nobody was around.

What if it was something serious, like a rather fast car accident?
*Femur jutting out of thigh* "It's just a scratch, mom!"

Speaking of which, what if something major like that happened, and they needed to do surgery, including putting in titanium alloy bolts/rods into the bone? (I know someone who had that happen to them).

They morph, and one of three things can happen. It can disappear/be removed like a bullet, it can force them to not morph certain things, or it functions like clothes. Now if it was the first one, and they come back for scans to make sure the body is accepting them, and all of a sudden all the metal is gone, how do you explain this? Chee to help would likely be the only way out.

As far as pregnancy, I'd say one of two things. It would be removed, because it has different DNA, or it would function as clothes. If it functions as clothes, and is sent into Z-Space, it could be said that it would die, yet does all the flesh from all the animals they've ever morphed die? It's impossible to say how a fetus would react.

[Phoenix004]

The Andalites wouldn't have had to consider the pregnancy issue, as only males were allowed in their military.

[ThinkAgain]

That does not mean that only males could morph. Ax has stated that estreens perform public shows, which implies that they are not part of the military.

[JFalcon]

Implies, yes. But retired warriors could go out and perform, and military exhibitions could contain Estreen performers, estreens and tailfighters, both could have been part of exhibitions aimed at getting young male Andalites to become soldiers, especially during a war that's clearly lasted long enough that Andalite children like Ax were born and brought up during it.

If they were impressed by the beauty of the morphing technology females could have been encouraged to go into the sciences by estreens as well, making them useful to the war effort without actually being warriors (I don't remember the Andalite stance of females in military science though) so it seems like it could be soemthing the Andalite military wouldn't mind spending a few talented soldiers on. A single estreen performance that nets a dozen or so new recruits away from being . . . whatever Andalites who aren't in the military become.

[Shark Akhrrana]

gardening maybe XD and making ship parts. I think Elfangor said his family made designs for some part of a fighter. but whatever. I see your point.

well if someone was pregnant and they don't want to lose the baby i think they would just have to wait. untill they have teh baby to morph . i mean i'm not going to test it to see if it works or not if it was me .

[SuperBlue]

I always thought if u morphed while u were pregnant the baby would stay in you like how your clothes would still be there if they weren't tight enough. so if you morph like a mouse or sumthin then you'll obviously die since you'd be growing smaller while the baby stayed the same sixe so...you go "Boom" and the baby wil probably die too, epsecially if you were under 7 months pregnant. but if you morphed something like a female gorilla, who's womb is probably similar to a human's, you'd probably be safe

[goom]

I always thought if u morphed while u were pregnant the baby would stay in you like how your clothes would still be there if they weren't tight enough. so if you morph like a mouse or sumthin then you'll obviously die since you'd be growing smaller while the baby stayed the same sixe so...you go "Boom" and the baby wil probably die too, epsecially if you were under 7 months pregnant. but if you morphed something like a female gorilla, who's womb is probably similar to a human's, you'd probably be safe

remember how ax described what happens to you body when you morph something smaller..?
yeah.. not good..
i'd not risk it. the morphing process itself might injure the baby.

anyways, who know? andalites might not birth the same way, so they didn't have to deal with the issue.

[wildweathel]

Blue, that's disgusting.  Just, eww.

Well, maybe we can approach this by asking about non-removable prosthetics.  Things like pacemakers, cochlear implants, titanium pins, and so on.  Prosthetics are really common these days.  I myself have eight hard plastic patches glued to my teeth to protect my molars.

Prosthetics are mentioned twice in canon:

• Andalite translator-chips.  Apparently, there's no problem morphing with these--since every Andalite in the series who can morph has one of these.  Even very small morphs: flea, mosquito.
• The Yeerk shark-control chips.  Apparently, there is a problem morphing with these.
  

The first point makes sense.  The Andalite military isn't going to be happy with a morphing tech that is incompatible with their translators.  This also offers a theoretical basis for morphing clothing.  Morphing can trap inanimate matter that's inside the body, or apparently, close to the body.  But, it's clearly not perfect.  When the story requires, morphing a small animal will free you of Evil Alien Mind Control Technology^(TM).

So, where does that put us with vivipary?  If Andalites are viviparous, I wouldn't expect morphing while pregnant to be a problem.  If not?  Who knows?

Oh, a bit of a pet peeve of mine: DNA.  How do we know that morphing is DNA based?

• Elfangor's Cliff-Notes-description of morphing.  He was describing the technology to aliens and really only paying attention to how to use it--not how it works.  We shouldn't take this as a technical specification.
• The Animorphs' narrative musings.  They learned everything they know from Elfangor.  See previous point.
• Ax doesn't correct them.  But, Ax was at best an average student, and he was never training to be a military-scientist, anyway.

Well, that's not the worst evidence I've ever seen.  However, DNA does not encode everything that morphing duplicates--such as age.  So, can we please, please stop assuming that morphing only copies DNA? 

[spoiler="extremely geeky tangent"]Especially because it is entirely possible for one organism to have multiple DNA sequences.  This is rare among terrestrial species--but when it does occur, such an individual, a tetragametic chimera, almost always appears normal--so that exact rates of chimerism are not known.  It's only under unusual circumstances that the condition is detected, like a woman apparently conceiving some other woman's children.  There's no reason to not think that in some alien species, chimerism is normal.  For example, the Mgalekgolo in the Halo canon.[/spoiler]

[SkyMorpher]

DNA does have an influence on age though, doesn't it? It's something in the way it divides or a component of it divides as we get older. Unless I'm mistaken. Could someone clarify for me please?

Thanks

[wildweathel]

Well, yeah, kinda.  There are regions at the end of DNA molecules that controls cell division and lifespan called telomeres.  But, they don't affect the functional part of the code (in vertebrate cells they just repeat TTAGGG over and over) and vary from cell type to cell type in an organism: epithelial cells die off quickly but stem cells are immortal. 

That said, it is possible to roughly estimate age from telomeres alone.  Telomeres don't determine age by themselves, but do play a role in the aging process.