Willing mothers: ectogenesis and the role of gestational motherhood

Abstract

While artificial womb technology (ectogenesis) is currently being studied for the purpose of improving neonatal care, I contend that this technology ought to be pursued as a means to address the unprecedented rate of unintended pregnancies. But ectogenesis, alongside other emerging reproductive technologies, is problematic insofar as it threatens to disrupt the natural link between procreation and parenthood that is normally thought to generate rights and responsibilities for biological parents. I argue that there remains only one potentially viable account of parenthood: the voluntarist account, which construes parental rights as robust moral obligations that must be voluntarily undertaken. The problem is that this account mistakenly presumes a patriarchal divide between procreation and parenthood. I propose a reframing of procreation and parenthood from a feminist perspective that recognises gestational motherhood as involving robust moral obligations that ought to be voluntarily undertaken. If this were the case, all gestational mothers would be, by definition, willing mothers. To make this happen I argue that ectogenesis technology must be a widely available reproductive option.

Contemporary reproductive technologies (the example of AWT technology) and gender equality in the focus of ideas expressed by modern western feminists and Russian women’s movement activists in the 20s of the ХХ c.

“…Особый интерес у них вызывает развитие технологии AWT, которую они рассматривают с точки зрения освобождения от репродуктивного (гестационного) неравенства, а также социального неравенства, построенного на его основе (см., напр. : [Kendal, 2017;Kennedy, 2020]). В данном случае проявляются два аспекта проблемы: во-первых, достижение гендерного равенства применительно к вынашиванию и рождению ребенка (тем самым ликвидируется неравное распределение бремени беременности и родов между полами), а во-вторых, реализация права женщины на репродуктивную свободу.…”

The path toward ectogenesis: looking beyond the technical challenges

“…A third, and according to Kendal “perhaps the strongest justification for promoting the development of ectogenesis” [ 58 ], is to offer a new solution to people who wish to procreate, but for whom pregnancy is impossible or particularly dangerous [ 8 – 10 , 14 , 15 , 17 , 21 , 30 ]. This could help a variety of people, including individuals with a damaged (e.g.…”

“…One of the most dominant ectogenesis related strands is the possible positive effect on women in terms of liberation from reproductive inequalities and the social inequalities built on the back of that [ 14 , 15 , 19 , 21 , 23 , 24 , 26 – 32 , 74 , 81 – 84 ] As analyzed by Cavaliere, this view consists of two separate, though closely connected arguments: the equality-promoting argument and the freedom-promoting argument [ 23 ].…”

“…A team from the University of Eindhoven recently received a €2.9 million grant to develop a prototype human artificial womb building on these findings [6]. A womb-like environment to support extracorporeal gestation is expected to advance pre-natal therapy, benefit neonatal intensive care, and potentially provide a novel solution for people who want to have a child but who are not capable of undergoing pregnancy [1,5,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. These expected benefits are cited by medical professionals, scientists and ethicists alike and are often considered the driving forces towards a future clinical introduction of this technology [21,22].…”

“…Arguments for the production of artificial uteri are also made under the heading of promoting reproductive freedom and equality among genders and sexual minorities [14,15,19,21,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Further, it is often suggested that artificial uteri could reconcile not ending the life of the fetus with the pregnant person's autonomy to terminate pregnancy [15,25,[33][34][35][36][37][38].…”