Ectogenesis

Exchanges between Literature and Science from the 1800s to the 2000s: Converging Realms. Ed. by Márcia Lemos and Miguel Ramalhete Gomes. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017, 136-154.


This article investigates the concept of ectogenesis or extracorporeal gestation and the debate that accrued around it in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s, especially as it was discussed in the “Today and Tomorrow” series of books and the circle of intellectuals associated with it. I will look in particular at British geneticist J. B. S. Haldane’s Daedalus, or Science and the Future (1923), which launched the series, Anthony Ludovici’s Lysistrata, or Woman’s Future and Future Woman (1924) and Vera Brittain’s Halcyon, or the Future of Monogamy (1929).
I will also briefly examine some contemporary fictional depictions of ectogenesis, which were clearly influenced by the books mentioned above, and which directly intervened in the debate around the development of fetuses in artificial wombs. Although Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) was the most famous fictional rendition of the notion of extra-uterine gestation there were many other, less well-known texts. Victorian Journalist Fred T. Jane’s “The Incubated Girl” (1896) is an earlier example as is Charlotte Haldane’s Man’s World (1926), a novel that also discusses the concept of ectogenesis. Rebecca West’s “Man and Religion” (1932), in turn, ends with a version of a sex-role reversal society, brought about by a number of scientific discoveries that have provided women with great physical vigour, a longer life span and allowed gestation to take place outside the womb. Neil Bell’s The Seventh Bowl (1934) also toys with the idea of ectogenesis while in August Anson’s When Woman Reigns (1938), another sex-role reversal utopia where women rule the world, ectogenesis has played a fundamental role in bringing about this dominance. All of these texts can be seen as centrally engaged in a critical dialogue with some of the books of the “Today and Tomorrow” series.
While ectogenesis stands at the root of a fantasy which could be equated with masculine womb envy, the dream of becoming a male mother and thus dispensing almost totally with women, for women, on the other hand, extra-uterine pregnancy, combined with cloning techniques, could constitute an enabling vision of autonomy from the male, but also a potentially threatening one, as Ludovici propounds. I propose thus to examine some of the vexed issues surrounding the fantasy of extra-uterine gestation.

Los debates actuales relativos a la gestación subrogada se inscriben en la perspectiva de la ruptura del vínculo biológico en la maternidad. La ciencia aleja siempre más los límites a la procreación. A través del Derecho, el Estado trata de controlar el desarrollo de esta técnica que replantea las cuestiones jurídicas de la filiación materna. La maternidad biológica siempre ha sido considerada como única por motivos jurídicos y políticos. Ahora bien, la ciencia y el Derecho han permitido la emergencia de otros tipos de maternidad. Además, las técnicas reproductivas, la gestación subrogada, así como la inminencia de la ectogénesis conducen a la ruptura jurídica del vínculo biológico de la maternidad, puesto que ésta es posible en un contexto de cambio sociológico que hace prevalecer la libre elección de la (no)maternidad y la igualdad de género ante el hecho de la Naturaleza.

This paper investigates the concept of ectogenesis and the debate that accrued around it in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s, especially as it was discussed in the “Today and Tomorrow” series of books and the circle of intellectuals associated with it. I will look in particular at J. B. S. Haldane’s Daedalus, or Science and the Future (1923), Anthony Ludovici’s Lysistrata, or Woman’s Future and Future Woman (1924), Norman Haire’s Hymen, or the Future of Marriage (1927), Vera Brittain’s Halcyon, or the Future of Monogamy (1929), J. D. Bernal’s The World, The Flesh and the Devil: An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul (1929) and Eden Paul’s Chronos, or the Future of the Family (1930).
I will also examine some contemporary fictional depictions of ectogenesis, which were clearly influenced by the books mentioned above, and which directly intervened in the debate around the development of fetuses in artificial wombs. I will look at Charlotte Haldane’s Man’s World (1926) and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), which can be seen as engaged in a critical dialogue with some of the books of the “Today and Tomorrow” series. Naomi Mitchison’s Solution Three (1975) and J. B. S. Haldane’s The Man With Two Memories (1976) continued to address this debate in the 1970s, amongst a cluster of utopian novels in the period, mostly written by women.
While ectogenesis stands at the root of a fantasy which could be equated with masculine womb envy, the dream of becoming a male mother and thus dispensing almost totally with women, associated with human cloning, for women, on the other hand, extra-uterine pregnancy, combined with cloning techniques, could constitute an enabling vision of autonomy from the male, but also a potentially threatening one, as Ludovici propounds. I propose thus to examine the vexed issues surrounding the fantasy of extra-uterine gestation.

Resumo: Filósofas da diferença sexual, como Adriana Cavarero, se dedicaram a pensar o que significa nascer de uma mulher. Nascer é ser introduzida a uma teia de relações que nos antecede, a experiência de gestar e ser gestada desafia a noção de subjetividade destacada da MATERia, dando abertura a uma ontologia do comum: no nascimento somos, no plural. Shulamith Firestone, entretanto, propõe uma experiência de pensamento: e se nascêssemos de máquinas, numa xenofamília (e não numa biofamília)? A presente fala pretende explicitar as noções de diferença sexual e ontologia que subjazem às duas propostas, compreendendo o nascimento em seu caráter cosmopolítico.

Significant scientific progress has been made toward artificial womb technology, which would allow part of human gestation to occur outside the body. Bioethical and legal scholars have argued that artificial wombs will challenge defences of abortion based in arguments for protecting bodily autonomy, for a pregnant person could have the foetus transferred to an artificial womb instead of being terminated. Drawing on examples from the common law jurisdictions of Canada, the USA, and the UK, I assess three ways scholars have argued abortion might be defended after ectogenesis (through redefining foetal viability, through a property right, and through a right to avoid genetic parenthood). I argue that while each of these proposals has strategic merit, each has significant legal and ethical limitations. Taking the normative position that abortion will remain a vital healthcare resource, I make the case for protecting abortion rights from a challenge posed by ectogenesis by focusing on decriminalisation.

The benefits of full ectogenesis, that is, the gestation of human fetuses outside the maternal womb, for women ground many contemporary authors’ arguments on the ethical desirability of this practice. In this paper, I present and assess two sets of arguments advanced in favour of ectogenesis: arguments stressing ectogenesis’ equality-promoting potential and arguments stressing its freedom-promoting potential. I argue that although successfully grounding a positive case for ectogenesis, these arguments have limitations in terms of their reach and scope. Concerning their limited reach, I contend that ectogenesis will likely benefit a small subset of women and, arguably, not the group who most need to achieve equality and freedom. Concerning their limited scope, I contend that these defences do not pay sufficient attention to the context in which ectogenesis would be developed and that, as a result, they risk leaving the status quo unchanged. After providing examples of these limitations, I move to my proposal concerning the role of ectogenesis in promoting women’s equality and freedom. This proposal builds on Silvia Federici’s, Mariarosa Dalla Costa’s and Selma James’ readings of the international feminist campaign ‘Wages for Housework’. It maintains that the political perspective and provocation that ectogenesis can advance should be considered and defended.

In this short article, I consider the mythologies of ectogenesis that have arisen in response to breakthroughs in scientific research on incubators from the 1880s to the present day. In particular, I interrogate contemporary claims that artificial womb technologies could one day replace abortion. I argue that these claims demonstrate a significant lack of attention to care and relationality during pregnancy. Finally, I propose that we can use the fantasy of ectogenesis in a different way, to imagine a new kind of future rather than replicating the narratives of the past.

In 1924, the British scientist J.B.S. Haldane coined the term “ectogenesis” to describe how human pregnancy would one day give way to artificial wombs. “It was in 1951 that Dupont and Schwarz produced the first ectogenetic child,” Haldane wrote, imagining how an earnest college student of the future would describe the phenomenon. “Now that the technique is fully developed, we can take an ovary from a woman, and keep it growing in a suitable fluid for as long as twenty years, producing a fresh ovum each month, of which 90 percent can be fertilized, and the embryos grown successfully for nine months, and then brought out into the air.” By the year 2074, Haldane imagined, ectogenesis had become a popular technique—with “less than 30 percent of children... now born of woman.” Writing at a time when debates over contraception and eugenics raged on both sides of the Atlantic, his prediction was an understandable outgrowth of these new efforts to control fertility. “Had it not been for ect...

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is associated with low-quality oocytes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of metformin (MET), N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and their combination on follicular fluid parameters, oocytes and embryo quality in PCOS patients. A prospective randomised placebo-controlled pilot study on 60 Iranian women with PCOS (aged 25-35 years) undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) was designed. Women were divided into four groups (n=15 in each): (1) an MET, administered 1500mg day-1 MET; (2) an NAC group, administered 1800mg day-1 NAC; (3) an NAC + MET group; and (4) a placebo group. Drugs were administered from the 3rd day of previous cycle until the day of oocyte aspiration (6 weeks treatment in total). Data were analysed by one-way ANOVA, with significance set at PPPPP<0.02). We concluded that NAC improves oocyte and embryo quality and could be administered as an alternative to MET.

Feminist utopias can be described as thought experiments in speculative fiction,
extrapolating into the future new family, social and political scenarios deemed more adequate to
feminine visions of a better world, freed from repressive patriarchal structures. They can thus become
useful narrative instruments in terms of imagining more egalitarian worlds. Dystopias, in turn,
usually appear in times of crisis, fictionally dramatizing the dominant questions and taking the
potential repercussions of these problems to their most drastic consequences. They are thus cautionary
tales, warning against those future dangers that may still be prevented if sufficient attention is paid
to solve them. Alongside a general overview and contextualization of the most important clusters of
feminist utopias and dystopias, this article will analyse some of the most relevant thematic concerns.
Particular attention will be given to the ways in which biology has conditioned women’s roles as well
as the potential for change as a result of the implementation of new reproductive technologies.

As utopias feministas podem ser descritas como exercícios intelectuais de extrapolação futura e invenção crítica de novos cenários familiares, sociais e políticos mais adequados a visões de um mundo melhor, de um ponto de vista feminino, liberto de rígidas e repressivas estruturas patriarcais. Neste sentido transformam-se em instrumentos extremamente úteis na visualisação de mundos mais igualitários. As distopias, por seu lado, surgem predominantemente em tempos de
crise, dramatizando as problemáticas dominantes e por vezes levando as suas possíveis ramificações até às consequências mais drásticas, constituindo-se como um aviso e chamada de atenção para problemas futuros que poderão ainda ser prevenidos se lhes for prestada a atenção devida e encontradas soluções para os resolver. A par de uma visão geral e contextualização dos maiores agrupamentos de utopias e distopias feministas este artigo elencará algumas das temáticas sobre as quais estas narrativas incidem mais enfaticamente e analisará mais em pormenor de que maneira a biologia feminina tem condicionado o papel da mulher, reflectindo também sobre as possibilidades de mudança que se perfilam num horizonte próximo como resultado da implementação de novas tecnologias reprodutivas.

A technique for the culture of 12- and 13-day rat embryos is presented. The culture method described utilizes the opening of the extraembryonic membranes together with a simple bottle rotator during incubation to facilitate tissue oxygenation. This method was compared with a more elaborate device that enabled constant gassing during incubation. Best results were obtained with 12-day embryos cultured for 24 hr in closed bottles. Thereafter, there was a marked falloff in embryonic development in culture. Optimal medium conditions were 25% rat serum in tissue culture medium with a gas phase of 60% O2, 5% CO2, 35% N2. The culture method described allows for larger numbers of embryos to be cultured more simply than previous methods and should be valuable to workers wishing to study embryos in the more advanced stages of organogenesis.

This chapter argues that the portrayal of ectogenesis in recent British women’s speculative fiction—specifically in Baby X (2016) by
Rebecca Ann Smith, Anne Charnock’s Arthur C. Clarke award-winning science fiction novel Dreams Before the Start of Time (2017)
and Helen Sedgwick’s The Growing Season (2017)—critiques the state of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), which has been
subject to defunding and privatization over a number of decades. This is already a feminist issue with consequences for
reproductive health through the rationing of in vitro fertilization (IVF). These science fiction texts are placed in the context of British
texts on ectogenesis and eugenics such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and contemporary feminist debates about the
potential value of ectogenesis for women’s liberation.

In a recent article in this journal, Kathryn MacKay advances a defence of ectogenesis that is grounded in this technology’s potential to end—or at least mitigate the effects of—gender‐based oppression. MacKay raises important issues concerning the socialization of women as ‘mothers’, and the harms that this socialization causes. She also considers ectogenesis as an ethically preferable alternative to gestational surrogacy and uterine transplantation, one that is less harmful to women and less subject to being co‐opted to further oppressive ends. In this article, I challenge some of the assumptions that underlie MacKay’s case in favour of ectogenesis by questioning whether the relationship between women’s capacity to gestate and birth children and gender‐based oppression is as strong as MacKay makes it out to be. I subsequently argue that—even if MacKay’s reading of this relationship is accurate—ectogenesis is not a desirable means to end gender‐based oppression. It embodies a strategy that could be used to pursue liberating projects that follow what Iris Marion Young defines as ‘the ideal of assimilation’, but that must be resisted. I then concur with MacKay’s contention that ectogenesis is better than gestational surrogacy and uterine transplantation. My argument is that many of the problematic issues that MacKay herself sees as features of these practices will not disappear with ectogenesis. Finally, I conclude that MacKay’s narrow focus on women’s biology and ectogenesis as a solution to gender‐based oppression results in the overlooking of broader systemic issues that contribute to the upholding of oppressive norms.

Technofeminisms are dealing with new sets of challenges directly related to the possibilities opened by transhumanism. Among the huge list of possible technological advances, we direct our interest towards reproductive technologies, in particular ectogenesis (foetus pregnancy and growth outside a human womb). Although some authors defend the benefits of this technology for the advancement of gender equality, we want to suggest a radically different scenario: the studies on ectogenesis will not liberate women—once they are not ‘limited’ by the duties of childbirth (and care)—nor blur gender differences according to evolutionary requests, but they can rather reinforce the current male gendered dominance. A study of the situated nature of existing studies and experiments on ectogenesis, as well as a study of the current clashes between the possibilities offered by technology and the more probable biased outcomes will offer us a sound background to think about the limits of technological transformation that are directly related to social pressures, rather than to a “natural or rational outcome” in relation to such technologies. Despite the fact that from a biotechnological perspective embryos have been created without fertilisation by sperm nuclei, consequently eliminating the need of males for reproductive purposes, more intense efforts are being invested into extra womb pregnancy. Biotechnologies, and especially those related to reproductive tasks, are being gendered biased, following a tendency also present into AI and robotics industries and researches (where assistant roles are always ruled by ‘female characters’). At some point, the lemma of xenofeminists of “Gender abolitionism” can become true…but could this abolition to imply the emergence of a neutral gender which true essence was a male reference (for example at bodily level)? Under such scenario, the dilution of females under an over-dominating male-society, thanks to technology, would create a specific scenario: males would not need women for reproducing new human beings. Could it mean the end of the existence of females (as humans able to be pregnant and to give birth), or even a definitive undervaluation of female’s ancient roles in favor of a new male prototype?

This essay analyses representations of ectogenesis, in particular artificial wombs, in selected films. Indeed, the ectogenetic imaginary is strongly present in cinema. Filmic images of artificial wombs, however, tend to be presented in predominantly negative contexts, hinting at the potentially nefarious consequences of the ectogenetic technology. Films depicting the creation of life by (usually) male scientists, with recourse to incubators and other similar devices, clearly conforming to a psychological dynamic characterised by womb envy, appear to suggest that the deliberate elision of women from the primal scene of creation can only lead to monstrosity and grotesque progeny, even though the responsibility is normally seen to rest with the scientists themselves. Indeed, the creatures gestating inside the pods or incubators are usually monstrous, grotesque, alien and dangerous. Examples of such creatures occur in such films as Ralph Nelson’s Embryo (US, 1976), Roger Donaldson’s Species (US, 1995), Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien Resurrection (US, 1997) and Vincenzo Natali’s Splice (Canada/France/USA, 2009).
James Whale’s Frankenstein (US, 1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (US, 1935) are amongst the first films to use protoversions of artificial wombs. Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (US/Japan, 1994), in turn, in the vein of Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein, portrays a highly technological birth scene with recourse to versions of artificial wombs replete with amniotic fluid and the paraphernalia of a technological birth. In Andy and Lana Wachowski’s The Matrix (US/ Australia, 1999) and Michael Bay’s The Island (US, 2005) humans are also developed in womb-like containers in a laboratory environment.
This plethora of highly cautionary filmic representations of artificial wombs, then, has been the main purveyor of the predominantly negative images that circulate in the popular media and popular unconscious pertaining to the artificial uterus imagery. These and other filmic examples will be analysed as instantiations of this ectogenetic imaginary, an integral part of the increasingly prevalent biogenetic imaginary which dominates our contemporary world, with recourse to recent critical work not only on the ethics of the potential future implementation of ectogenesis but also on the vexed psychological components of this highly controversial future technology.

Chick embryos at stage 8, prior to neural crest cell migration, were explanted on whole egg medium with or without vitamin A and cultured for 3 days. Sections through the head regions showed that the cranial neural crest cells had migrated into the first visceral arch in the controls but were absent from this structure in the treated embryos. These observations suggest that vitamin A inhibits neural crest cell development or migration, an effect which may in part account for the facial malformations produced by excess vitamin A.

The knowledge concerning redox and reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated regulation of early embryo development is scarce and remains controversial. The aim of this work was to determine ROS production and redox state during early in vitro embryo development in sperm-mediated and parthenogenetic activation of bovine oocytes. Sperm-mediated oocyte activation was carried out in IVF-modified synthetic oviductal fluid (mSOF) with frozen–thawed semen. Parthenogenetic activation was performed in TALP plus ionomycin and then in IVF-mSOF with 6-dimethylaminopurine plus cytochalasin B. Embryos were cultured in IVF-mSOF. ROS and redox state were determined at each 2-h interval (7–24 h from activation) by 2′,7′-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate and RedoxSensor Red CC-1 fluorochromes respectively. ROS levels and redox state differed between activated and non-activated oocytes (P<0.05 by ANOVA). In sperm-activated oocytes, an increase was observed between 15 and 19 h (P<0.05). Converse...

This paper aims to address how artificial gestation might affect equality of opportunity for the unborn and any resultant generation of "ectogenetic" babies. It will first explore the current legal obstacles preventing the development of ectogenesis, before looking at the benefits of allowing this technology to control fetal growth and development. This will open up a discussion of the treatment/enhancement divide regarding the use of reproductive technologies, a topic featured in various bioethical debates on the subject. Using current maternity practices in Western society as a comparator, this paper will conclude that neither naturally nor artificially gestated fetuses have interests that can conflict with those of potential parents who might want to use this technology to control fetal development. Such control may include selective implantation of embryos of a desired gender, deliberate choice of genetic traits, or maintenance of an ideal incubation environment to avo...

From his creation in 1938, the comic book character Superman has embodied certain cultural ideals in relation to both physicality and morality. As an alien with a penchant for philosophising about human decency and responsibility, Superman is often viewed as a somewhat sanctimonious figure whose perfection serves to illustrate humanity’s own moral failings. The “last son of Krypton” has also had an interesting relationship with artificial reproductive technologies and eugenics over his long life, with various incarnations of the Man of Steel being artificially gestated. This presentation will focus on the representation of ectogenesis technology in the Superman franchise, paying particular attention to the films Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015), Man of Steel (2013) and Superman Doomsday (2007). It will also briefly cover Superman’s offspring Kon-El from the Superboy comic of the D.C. New 52 (2011). Ethical issues arising from these texts include ambiguity regarding kinship ties for an artificially gestated person, and social fears regarding what is “natural” and “unnatural.” There are also related concerns surrounding personal identity, involuntary genetic parenthood, and reproductive cloning. As a figure intended to represent an idealised version of humanity, the treatment of Superman’s gestation and birth over time is relevant when interrogating attitudes toward emerging reproductive technologies and what makes us human.

Silvia Federici aponta que o patriarcado de salários, que emerge com o início do capitalismo, esteve acompanhado de um controle rigoroso dos corpos das mulheres. Enquanto o proletário vai se conectando, universalizando e fundindo com as máquinas, as mulheres se encontram destacadas pela domesticidade, cuja função é garantir a reprodução social desse maquinário humano. O salário aparece como o elemento que garante a nova face para o patriarcado. O salário masculino garante a submissão feminina a seu destino de reparadora e fornecedora de peças para a grande máquina do capital. As mulheres aparecem então como mães de máquinas-trabalhadores em um patriarcado maquínico. Entretanto, a ideia da mecanização da maternidade toma outras proporções com o desenvolvimento de tecnologias reprodutivas, o que deu origem a posições opostas dentro dos feminismos: Shulamith Firestone, por exemplo, aposta na capacidade da ectogênese de liberar as mulheres de seu fardo biológico reprodutivo. Já Gena Corea compreende como o desenvolvimento de tecnologias reprodutivas se baseou, muitas vezes, em violações de direitos básicos de mulheres. Pretendo nesse artigo apresentar as disputas feministas acerca da ideia de ectogênese e mecanização da reprodução, a partir das autoras citadas e de seus ecos na literatura de ficção científica presentes nos livros: A Handmaid's Tale de Margaret Atwood e Woman on the Edge of Time de Marge Piercy. Palavras-chave: filosofia; ectogênese; ficção científica.

The concept of reproduction without uterus, or ectogenesis, has long been considered a myth. Nowadays, however, the in vitro conception (IVF) and embryo culture before implantation are largely used in humans with more than 50,000 IVF and ICSI procedures yearly in France, but also in ruminants where about 400,000 bovine embryos are produced in vitro worldwide each year. In order to proceed with gestation, a 3D structure enabling implantation is needed. Ex-vivo implantation of human embryos was obtained both in a perfused ex-vivo uterus and in a 3 dimensional culture of endometrial cells, but these experiments were stopped because of ethical concerns. The implantation of a mouse embryo in a similar 3D structure has been reported but did not lead to the production of a live pup. Another interest for an artificial uterus or placenta would be to use it for ex-vivo maturation of very premature fetuses. Extra-corporal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) was developed for many years but its use remains disappointing in preterm infants when compared to the important progress made with more classical clinical care. In any case, goat fetuses have been maintained alive up to 9 days in an artificial amniotic pouch, being oxygenated via ECMO.

Technofeminisms are dealing with new sets of challenges directly related to the possibilities opened by transhumanism. Among the huge list of possible technological advances, we direct our interest towards reproductive technologies, in particular ectogenesis (foetus pregnancy and growth outside a human womb). Although some authors defend the benefits of this technology for the advancement of gender equality, we want to suggest a radically different scenario: the studies on ectogenesis will not liberate women—once they are not ‘limited’ by the duties of childbirth (and care)—nor blur gender differences according to evolutionary requests, but they can rather reinforce the current male gendered dominance. A study of the situated nature of existing studies and experiments on ectogenesis, as well as a study of the current clashes between the possibilities offered by technology and the more probable biased outcomes will offer us a sound background to think about the limits of technologica...