By Victoria Adkins. In the literature concerning ectogenesis – the process of gestating a foetus outside of the human body (in an artificial womb) – discussions have been concerned with its possible implications for pregnant women. However, in order to consider these implications effectively we must also look at the relationship between pregnant women and […]
Category: Reproduction
Imagining a Different Future: Ectogenesis and Self-Determination
By Claire Horn Like other academics who write about artificial wombs, much of the work I’ve done in the last few years has required me to operate at least in part on a speculative level, tracing the problems that present themselves in our contemporary context to understand what the impact of this technology in development […]
What can contraceptive justice teach us about coronavirus?
By Arianne Shahvisi A disease sweeps through the population, and is transmitted between people through ordinary social interaction. One group of people are particularly vulnerable, and infection has very serious consequences for them. Another group is able to transmit the disease, but has little risk of being harmed by it. Measures can be taken by […]
Partial ectogenesis in context
By Elizabeth Chloe Romanis. Sci-fi stories about the artificial womb abound – from Brave New World to the Growing Season, and now that scientists are seemingly making progress towards technology that might be partially capable of facilitating the process of gestation ex utero, there has emerged exciting academic debate about the potential implications. There is […]
After death let men donate sperm to infertile people
By Nathan Hodson and Joshua Parker Of all the revolutionary advances provided by artificial reproductive techniques, few would have imagined that it would allow men to have their sperm removed after death and used to successfully produce offspring. Yet recent cases show that it is possible and apparently safe. In these cases it is the loved ones of the man […]
Ectogenesis as a Political Perspective
By Giulia Cavaliere I’m at that age. The age where close friends start talking about having babies, are having babies or are thinking about number two. Courtesy of these conversations, and YouTube ads being extremely concerned about my fertility, I too have begun pondering baby-related questions. As a certified nerd, the ‘pondering’ led me to […]
Birth and “Birth”: Why Human Subjects in Artificial Wombs Should be Treated as Neonates
By Nick Colgrove. Recently, I argued that human subjects in artificial wombs are newborns (or, at least, should be treated as newborns). This is because the subject of partial ectogenesis—which has been extracted from a pregnant woman’s body and placed in an artificial womb—is a newborn, full stop. The subject of complete ectogenesis—which is created […]
Is the “serious” factor in germline modification really relevant? A response to Kleiderman, Ravitsky and Knoppers
By Iñigo de Miguel Beriain Is the “serious” factor in germline modification relevant? This seems a relevant question in the germline gene editing debate. Of course, at first glance, one tends to choose an affirmative answer immediately. It seems common sense to think that sophisticated technology should be used only when we are faced with […]
Unravelling the concept of ‘routinization’ in prenatal screening
By Adriana Kater-Kuipers & Eline M. Bunnik. With the introduction of the non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) the ethical debate about prenatal screening is again in full swing. The new technique for the analysis of cell-free foetal DNA for trisomy 21, 18, and 13, and, in the future, possibly for a range of other abnormalities, requires […]
Fetuses, Newborns, and Parental Responsibility
By Prabhpal Singh Does a fetus have the same moral status as a newborn baby? When we compare the two, we see that both lack traditional morally relevant features (a rational capacity, a certain sort of consciousness, a certain sort of first-person experience, autonomy required for personhood, etc.). Accordingly, some philosophers have thought fetuses and […]