![]() Newsweek, too, pits a particular brand of second-wave feminism that sees reproduction as the exclusive and necessary province of women against the scientists developing artificial womb technology.īut the implications of ectogenesis for feminism far exceed a conflict between scientific researchers and a small but established group of old-guard feminists. What will ectogenesis mean for feminism in particular as it navigates this staggeringly complex intersection of medicine, bioethics, and reproductive politics? Istvan frames the debate surrounding ectogenesis as a fight between feminists who don’t want to “hand over women’s sacred birthing ability to science” and scientists who believe it can help mothers avoid the medical dangers of childbirth. Istvan believes that these legal obstacles can be circumvented, and that the artificial womb will be here by the end of the 21st century, along with a host of legal and cultural consequences. In 2003, a team of Cornell scientists began growing mouse embryos in artificial wombs but could only grow human embryos for 10 days due to current legislation, which places a two-week restriction on this line of research. The technology behind ectogenesis, as feminist journalist Soraya Chemaly notes, has been in development for at least a decade. Haldane had to coin the term ectogenesis-literally “developing outside” -in 1924 to describe a scientific advance that was then nothing but a science-fiction fantasy: the artificial womb.īut ectogenesismay pass from the pages of Brave New World into reality within 30 years, according to a new Motherboard report by transhumanist futurist Zoltan Istvan. And the Latin mātrīx for “womb” comes from the same Indo-European root that gives us the English “mother.” How, then, can gestation happen if no one is carrying the fetus? And how can a womb exist outside of a mother? Given these linguistic impossibilities, British scientist J.B.S. ![]() The term “gestation,” for instance, is derived from the Latin verb gestāre, used to describe a mammal carrying a burden. ![]() The idea that a human fetus can be raised outside of a woman’s body is so radical that our language can barely describe it. But when the womb-the most politicized body part in history-is separated from the woman, what will it mean for feminism? The Artificial Womb Will Change Feminism ForeverĪ report says a man-made womb could be reality within 30 years. ![]()
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