Ectogenesis: a reply to Singer and Wells

Bioethics. 1987 Jan;1(1):80-99. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.1987.tb00006.x.

Abstract

KIE: The possibility of achieving ectogenesis, or the growing of a human fetus to term in an artificial womb, is approaching reality as a result of advances in treatment of premature newborns and in in vitro fertilization techniques. In their 1984 book, The Reproductive Revolution, issued in North America as Making Babies, Peter Singer and Deane Wells offered several arguments for ectogenesis. James examines their arguments and rejects two of them, that ectogenesis offers a less problematic alternative to surrogate motherhood, and that ectogenesis could make it possible to reconcile fetal rights with the right to abortion on demand. He grants Singer and Wells' argument that the childless have a claim to state support of their desire to nurture, but contends that government-supported ectogenesis should still be rejected because the adoption of unwanted children is a preferable alternative to the use of an exotic, expensive, and still unproven technology.

MeSH terms

  • Abortion, Legal
  • Adoption
  • Artificial Organs*
  • Ethical Theory
  • Ethics*
  • Female
  • Fetal Tissue Transplantation
  • Fetus
  • Health Care Rationing
  • Human Rights*
  • Humans
  • Maternal-Fetal Relations
  • Methods
  • Moral Obligations
  • Parent-Child Relations
  • Pregnancy
  • Pregnant Women
  • Public Policy
  • Reproduction
  • Reproductive Techniques, Assisted*
  • Resource Allocation
  • Risk Assessment*
  • Risk*
  • Social Change
  • Social Justice
  • Social Responsibility
  • Surrogate Mothers
  • Tissue Donors
  • Tissue and Organ Procurement
  • Uterus*

Personal name as subject

  • Peter Singer
  • Deane Wells