Reproductive ectogenesis: The third era of human reproduction and some moral consequences |
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Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Stellan?WelinEmail author |
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Institution: | 1.Department of Tech. and Social Change,Link?ping University,Link?ping,Sweden;2.The Tema Institute,Link?ping University,Sweden |
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Abstract: | In a well known story Derek Parfit describes a disconnection between two entities that normally (in real life) travel together
through space and time, namely your personal identity consisting of both mind and body. Realising the possibility of separation,
even if it might never happen in real life, new questions arise that cast doubt on old solutions. In human reproduction, in
real life, at present the fetus spends approximately nine months inside the pregnant woman. But, we might envisage other possibilities.
Historically, the first era is the normal conception inside the woman, the growth of the fetus in the womb and then, after
nine months, birth and the appearance of a new individual. The second era is In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). The fetus starts
outside the woman as a fertilised egg, moves to the body of the woman and spends nine month there, where the body of the woman
and the fetus travel together in space-time to separate at birth. In the third era of reproductive ectogenesis, the two never
travel together. The fetus spends its gestational time entirely outside the woman’s body. We have two entities separated in
space-time the whole time. The intimate connection consisting in the fetus being a part of the woman’s body is gone.
In this paper I will briefly comment on the three eras of human reproduction — and primarily on the relationship between the
new individual and the woman — and then spend some time with a fictional story illustrating some moral consequences of the
third era. The story is from Pig Pharmaceuticals Limited and how they in the year 2050 report the successful development of
pig-related pregnancies with transgenic pigs as surrogate mothers. |
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Keywords: | ethics reproductive ectogenesis normal gestation In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) xenotransplantation |
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