To u,hat extent are women obliged to be child-bearers? If reproductive technology could offer some form of ectogenesis, would feminists regard it as a liberating reproductive option! Three lines of reproductive rights arguments currently used by feminists m e applied to ectogenesis. Each fails to provide strong grounds for prohibiting it. Yet, there are several ways in which ectogenesis could contribute to wmen's oppression, in particular, if it were used to undermine ubortion rights, reinforce traditional views of fertility, increase fetal rights in pregnancy, and perpetuate the unequal distribution of scarce medical resources. A rethinking of women's relationship to pregnancy is needed in order to challenge ectogenetic research.In the past few decades, great gains have been made in women's reproductive freedoms. Abortion, contraception and sterilization techniques allow women greater control over fertility. Feminists are united in support of these techniques. The feminist issue is not whether there ought to be pregnancy preventatives for women, but that the techniques available ought to be more accessible to women, and researchers ought to develop more effective and safer methods including male contraceptives and an abortifacient.' While feminists have been unified in support of methods that enable women to control their own fertility, there is disagreement among feminists about new reproductive techniques designed to treat infertility and induce pregnancy, such as in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer, and research for ectogenesis. If one believes that reproductive freedoms ought to include both fertility and infertility control, it is puzzling that feminists are united in support of the former but divided about the latter.The feminist debates over the new reproductive technologies which are aimed at treating infertility are very recent. Reproductive rights arguments that feminists have found effective in establishing rights to fertility control seem to have little effect in countering infertility techniques. Yet, given the rapid pace of infertility research and the large number of women involved, feminists need to develop coherent positions that either give valid grounds for making political distinctions between fertility and infertility research, or Hyputiu vol. 4, no. 3 (Fall 1989). Q by Julien S. Murphy
During the final two years of the Algerian War, Simone de Beauvoir demonstrated her commitment to the Algerian rebels by advocating for Djamila Boupacha. Boupacha, a twenty-three-year-old middle-class Algerian educated in France, was a member of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), and was arrested on the night of February 10, 1960....
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