A new dawn?: Ectogenesis, future children and reproductive choice

Medical technologies such as IVF, surrogacy, mitochondrial donation, PGD, gamete and embryo donation, and uterus transplants offer many different solutions to those who suffer with infertility, as well as providing options for having healthy children. There is a new reproductive choice on the distant horizon that is ectogenesis, ' ... commonly defined as the 'extrauterine gestation of human fetuses from conception to 'birth' although it could also entail artificial incubation of an embryo or fetus transferred from a woman's uterus after conception''. Put simply, ectogenesis involves developing a foetus wholly or partially outside of a human body, for example, in an artificial uterus. Many feminists have argued that ectogenetic research should be pursued in order to revolutionise reproductive choice and services in order to liberate women from their reproductive role and from the expectations of a patriarchal and pronatalist society. In contrast, the aim of this article is. to contemplate and consider the implications of ectogenetic reproduction for future 'ecto-children', so as to generate debate about some of the hitherto neglected repercussions of this reproductive technology. For the purposes of this article, ectogenesis is approached as a technically possible method of reproduction