Pregnancies/Theories
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Why the pregnancies fail
Theory 1: The Island's healing properties cause an immune reaction to pregnancy
Evidence
- In "The Other Woman", Juliet tells Ben that the immune systems of the women on the Island attacks the fetus (as if it were a parasite).
- The healing properties of the island might be the result of the Island's influence in making the immune systems of island residents hyperactive.
- This explains why all the pregnancies terminate at around the same time, regardless of who the parents are.
- This doesnt explain how Ethan was able to be born on the island without problems, even though the doctor does mention pregnant women usually dont give birth on the island. maybe this is just a precaution,
- Women can conceive on the island, as demonstrated by Sun's pregnancy and subsequent confirmation that she conceived on island with the aid of an improved Jin. However the island's unusual healing properties are the cause of the problems. Many women display an immunological response to their babies, in effect "rejecting" the fetus as a foreign invader. In fact in the real world, an estimated 20%-30% -- about 1 in 4 -- pregnancies end in miscarriage. The heightened healing properties of the island (i.e. improved immunological response to injury and disesases like cancer), unfortunately has the side effect of causing pre-eclampsia for pregnant women on the island. The end result is a 100% rejection rate, taking the lives of both mother and baby.
- Only the original inhabitants can conceive and successfully deliver a baby on the island. If someone other than someone born on the island conceives on the island, the potential baby is conceived as a native islander, but because the mother is not an original native, the physiology of the baby and the mother differ so that the mother's immune system rejects the baby. In the case of Claire, since she conceived off island, Aaron is the same physiologically, thus mother and son are neither natives of the island, and Aaron can be born successfully simply because of that.
Counter-evidence
- Why was Sun not affected or Claire/Aaron? Perhaps prolonged exposure is required?
- This would explain why the child would be miscarried, but not why the mother would also die in every case.
- The island's healing properties have been part of it for its entire history - this is why the hieroglyphics read "resurrection" and why Alpert was seen to not age from 1954 to 1977 (when Ethan WAS born).
Theory 2: The "will" of the island
The Island has the capacity to heal (e.g.: John Locke's inability to walk); it also has the capacity to harm (e.g: Ben Linus' spinal tumor). The Island normally depends on the leader of the inhabitants to manage the population but, when it detected a lack of genetic diversity, began making it impossible for women of its inhabitants to survive pregnancy. The Island could have simply caused miscarriages, but it chose a more severe warning. When the Island is once again satisfied with the diversity of its inhabitants' gene pool, normal pregnancies will occur among couples of whom at least one member is "new." Evidence
- This would explain why the child would be miscarried AND why the mother would also die.
The Island is punishing the Others for becoming dependent on technology. Ben claims that Jacob doesn't like technology, but the Others used the DHARMA facilities, such as:
- The Swan (now destroyed)
- The Barracks (now damaged and at least temporarily deserted)
- The Flame (now destroyed)
- The Arrow (now abandoned)
- The Hydra (now abandoned)
- The Looking Glass (now (at least) partially flooded).
The Island and its special powers need not be studied, only appreciated. When the Others purged the DHARMA Initiative, Jacob believed that Ben would be the great leader that would return the Others to the way of living that is completely natural. When Ben deviated from Jacob's plan, Jacob punished him the worst way possible, constant reminders of his own mothers death. Locke is now the new chosen leader, explaining why Jacob asked to be helped by him. The key to solving the Island's pregnancy issues is to appease Jacob with a return to natural living and the complete abandonment of the DHARMA facilities. Counter-evidence
- Certainly there are more straightforward ways for the island to kill people?
- Ben's spinal tumor could be just a coincidence
- The Island could hardly be responsible for Dharma stations being abandoned.
Theory 3: The mothers are much older than they appear.
Evidence
- In his recruitment presentation to Juliet, Alpert shows her a scan of a uterus he says belongs to a 26 year old, which Juliet says is that of a woman in her 70s.
- Perhaps while the people on the island are protected from aging and disease there are limits to the length of time the endometrium will regenerate.
Theory 4: Time Shifts cause pregnancies to fail.
- The time shifts of the island are somehow complicating the pregnancies.
- Time shifts are confusing the reproductive system so the body moves from a state of pregnancy to a state where it's unaware of the pregnancy and responds to it as an unknow invasive organism.
- Time shifts are somehow selectively aging certain organs (could also account for accelerated healing).
- Time shifts make it difficult for the unborn's consciousness to take hold, causing trauma and miscarriage.
- Time loop book-ended by the Incident and the turning of the wheel makes it impossible to add new people in order to preserve the causality (see #8, second post below).
- The Time Shifts caused the mothers to have a severe case of Pre-eclampsia resulting in the deaths of mother and baby. The time sifits cause biolent headaches and when a mother has Pre-eclampsia they expriance headaches to. yeah it was just a thought.
Theory 5: The Purge left residual effects causing Infertility.
- Pregnancies and birthing can occur when the DHARMA Initiative is on the Island in 1977
- After the Others Purge the Island they recruit Juliet to understand why pregnancies result in death
- At some point in between these two times something happened on the island causing infertility. The Purge killed out the DHARMA Initiative but an accidental side effect of the gases emanating from The Tempest are still in the air on the island. Whenever a woman on the island gets pregnant the gas from the Purge eventually kills them.
- There is still a pregnancy problem in 1977 but it isn't always deadly. This is proven when he says all pregnant woman are taken off the Island just before they give birth.
- The doctors aren't capable of delivering, giving birth is always difficult so it may be easier just to take the women off the island
Theory 6: The Mothers were actually dead, but later revived by the healing powers of The Island.
- Both John Locke and Christian Shephard were both dead before coming to the island and then later revived.
- Sun never got sick when she was pregnant because she was not dead before coming to the island.
- Amy did not get sick because she was part of the DHARMA Initiative and was not a hostile/other.
- The uterus shown to Juliet by Richard. Juliet said it looked like it came from a women in her 70s, but Richard said the woman was 26 years old. This could be because the women had been dead for over 50 years, or because a glitch in the island's healing process.
- This could also explain why Juliet was drugged before coming to the island, because they killed her.
- Richard is dead and that is why he does not age.
Theory 7: Letting Alex live meant that other children couldn't be born
Because Ben let Alex live, this began the start of the pregnancy issues for the Others. Note that Claire and Sun had their children on the Island, but they weren't Others. Amy had her child because Ben hadn't been tested yet by Widmore.
Theory 8: Pregnancy and Fertility Issues were caused by the Incident
Before the Incident it would seem it was perfectly possible to conceive and give birth on the island, backed up by Ethan. However, whatever the Incident was, it caused pregnancies to become problematic on the island. The electromagnetism of The Swan was felt everywhere on the island to some degree, as proven by the dodgy Compass Locke had, and the Oceanic Flight being brought down by the failure to push the button. Perhaps the fetus reacts negatively to the strong electromagnetism around the island. After the Purge, the only inhabitants of the island virtually was the Others, which means they were left to deal with the pregnancy issues. However, they had very little knowledge about the Swan, because it was hidden, hence why in all those years they never found out why there were pregnancy issues.
- Once the Incident began an infinite time loop "started" in which 30 odd years went by and a population (the left-behinds) was sent through time before settling in 1973. The infertility results because any children/people added to the population in the loop would cause an increase of X children/loop. This would in turn increase infinitely (through any probability of conception over absolute zero at an infinite rate) so that the population would reach infinitely instantly and destroy the loop. Therefore no people can be added to the loop who are not subsequently removed from the loop.
- Examples of added/subtracted from time loop:
- Alex is born to Danielle (added) but killed (removed)
- Aaron born but leaves the island and does not return to the loop
- Ji Yeon
- Ethan (conceived before arrival of Sawyer & co.)
- An issue with this theory may be the fact that the Others don't seem to travel through the loop with non-natives (evidenced by their disappearance in front of Locke); still it seems that this theory may be partially right, with the time loop/"paradox" prohibiting the arrival of new players in the loop.
- Examples of added/subtracted from time loop:
Theory 9: Reproductive cancer
Radiation from the Jack and etc. blowing up Jughead releases radiation and electromagnetic energy in such high doses that cancer affects everyone, but it is a special type because of the electromagnetic energy mixed in. Reproductive cancer: It attacks the woman's eggs and uterus, but causes mens' sperm to multiply rapidly (hence the dramatically increased sperm count). The sperm and eggs are not normal, so the woman's body attacks the zygote, while the cancer kills the mother, so both die.
Theory 10: Destruction of the Statue
The 4-toed foot once belonged to a statue of Sobek, an Egyptian god which represented fertility. When the statue was destroyed, the ability of women on the island to successfully reproduce was destroyed with it.
- unlikely as Ben says the statue was destroyed when he got there as a child, which doesn't tie up to Ethan being born successfully several years later.
- I think its more likely that Jacob's death caused the fertility issues. The fact that Aaron is born, and Sun conceives in the future suggests that he has returned, or never actually died though.
- The fertility issues were happening in 2001, 6 years before Jacobs death in 2007, as evidence of Richard recruiting Juliet to help them (Juliet said she had been on the Island for 3 years in 2004, which means she arrived in 2001)
- It appears mother and baby die only when the child is conceived on the island, and mother is still on the island close to the third trimester, because that is when Juliet said both mother and baby dies. Aaron was conceived off the island, and Sun was off the island before her third trimester.
- I think its more likely that Jacob's death caused the fertility issues. The fact that Aaron is born, and Sun conceives in the future suggests that he has returned, or never actually died though.
Theory 11: Caused by Jacob's Nemesis
It is possible that while Jacob was recruting/touching people that he would need in his centuries long battle with his nemesis that the nemesis was doing some recruiting of his own. He caused the island pregnancies to fail in order to bring Juliet so that she would ultimatley ensure that Jughead was set off.
- I think Jacob's nemesis orchestrated the destruction of the statue in order to keep innocent/good people from being on the island. This makes it more difficult for Jacob to maintain control of the island.
- As an aside: If Juliet's detonation of the bomb caused the destruction of the statue, and that caused fatal pregnancies then her reason for coming to the island was caused by her own actions. This circular cause/effect is important to Season 5. --Guidedbyvoip 07:19, September 3, 2009 (UTC)
- Jacob's Nemesis hates humanity, so he made it so that women who conceive on the island will die, in an effort to indirectly kill off all the island's inhabitants.
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