Ectogenesis—gestation using an artificial womb—is fast approaching reality. Yet without legislation, this innovation also has the potential to cause harm.
Current philosophical literature and legislation on abortion revolve around three debates: the moral status of the fetus, women’s bodily autonomy, and the fetus’s viability. Ectogenesis means that fetuses at all stages will be viable, so the technology’s development will impact all three of these debates.
Under law in many places where abortion is permitted, the fetus’s right to life transcends a woman’s bodily autonomy at the point when the fetus becomes viable.
Successful ectogenesis would render the fetus viable at a very early stage, possibly even from conception. If ectogenesis—even partial ectogenesis—becomes available, it would then be possible for an unwanted fetus to be transferred into an artificial womb to continue developing without harming a woman’s bodily autonomy, depending on how the fetus is removed. In this way, women would be able to end their pregnancy without resorting to traditional abortion. Given this option, if a woman chooses traditional abortion regardless, the abortion will appear more like an intentional killing.
Women should have the right to reject ectogenetic surgery on the grounds of bodily autonomy; otherwise, as Canadian philosopher Christine Overall has pointed out, a forced transfer procedure would be akin to deliberately stealing human organs, which is deeply unethical.
Future legislation will need to guarantee that ectogenesis is a choice rather than a new form of coercion. The right to abortion will need to be recentered in law around the value of reproductive autonomy and the right not to become a biological parent against one’s will, as opposed to fetus viability. As this legal debate gains the attention of politicians, legislators, community leaders, and the wider public, how much people and societies respect women’s right to choose will become more apparent than ever.
Source: Artificial Wombs Will Change Abortion Rights Forever | WIRED
This was utterly predictable back in 1973 when Roe v Wade fixed on the trimester system. New reproductive technologies were in full flight so it was obvious that so long as preservation outside the woman’s body was possible abortion as we know it was not just at risk. This means women are in a cleft stick. Most will do their best to keep the fetus intact and inside their own bodies until birth. Most won’t want to relinquish the fetus to an artificial womb and someone else’s care.