17287: Raber: Chimere (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: P&M Raber <raber@valkyrie.net>

A couple of weeks ago there were some discussions centering around the word
: "chimere".  Here is one more definition that is kind of interesting
considering the rich Haitian folklore surrounding "marasas" or twins.

In medicine, chimaeras are people who contain cells from a sibling or are
two people rolled into one.   For example in England, a boy who was born by
in-virto fertilization when two eggs fertilized by two different sperm were
implanted into his mother came out a hermaphrodite which means with both
female and male sexual organs.  Human chimaerism first came to light with
the advent of blood typing-some people it emerged have more than one blood
group.  Most are "blood chimaeras", non identical twins who shared a blood
supply in the womb.  Those who were not born as twins are thought to be
pumping around the remnants of  a sibling that died early in gestation.  One
british woman for instance was unaware that she once had a twin until
routine blood tests during her pregnancy in the early 1980's revealed a
population of chomosomally male blood cells.