Weirdly brave new world

You have to work hard to follow the genetic details in this story:

TWO Marin women - best friends and longtime domestic partners - dreamed for four years of having a family. Some weeks ago, after many fruitless and heartbreaking tries, their dream came true: They are the mothers of four tiny babies, three girls and a boy. Shelley Friedman carried two of the babies, Noa and Nathan, and a week later - on Nov. 5 - her partner Tania Lowenthal gave birth to Elie and Emma, identical twins. "It's a miracle," says a radiant Friedman, 44, who hopes their story will inspire others who might give up on becoming parents. "With a great partner, with medical advances, and with the support of a wonderful community, it is possible to fulfill your dream of having a family." The new mothers and their babies - conceived through in vitro fertilization with a sperm donor and Lowenthal's eggs - are part of a growing trend in variations on parenthood, said Tes Lazzarini Robards, president of the Marin Parents of Multiples Club. "It is great that modern science is finding ways so once infertile couples can now have children of their own," she said. The Friedman/Lowenthal babies are considered to be quadruplets, though carried in two different wombs. [Emphasis mine.]

These are not the only strange genetic tales from modern science. The same article details a bunch of other looney relationships thanks to science's involvement in cutting edge cultural relationships.