
Is artificial-womb technology a tool for women’s liberation? - BarelyLit
https://aeon.co/ideas/is-artificial-womb-technology-a-tool-for-womens-liberation
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ArtWomb
>>> artificial wombs would eliminate a crucial condition that currently
ensures women’s oppression by neutralising the heavily gendered process of
reproduction

Beyond the speculation regarding liberational aspects, or even the foetus-
gestator divide, there are other compelling arguments why a host of
"reproductive tech" should be considered

Formost is the idea that we may require at some point, a rapid re-population
of the human species. Due to unforseen catastrophe. Or expansion into space
colonies.

But the most urgent is that this sort of thing is still decades away from
becoming viable. So if it comes to pass that we do require it. We will have
the capacity at the appropriate time.

~~~
Accujack
>there are other compelling arguments why a host of "reproductive tech" should
be considered

...and also why it should be heavily regulated or restricted. Right now, the
primary means of ensuring that no one person (political leadeer, cult leader,
corporate owner, random wealthy person) can form their own personal army of
followers devoted to them are the facts that followers are people and people
are both independent and protected as such (or should be) by laws.

Freeing women from the "oppression" of having to bear children also means
freeing men (who have a different reproductive strategy altogether) from the
need to control or hire women to bear their children.

If artificial womb technology becomes available even at a high price, it
becomes possible for one very wealthy man to purchase eggs from fertile women,
fertilize them with his own sperm, and then produce hundreds or thousands of
children in private without legal oversight. Said children can be
indoctrinated in a cult, built into an army, sold as slaves, or farmed for
organs.

Decoupling human reproduction from the need for two or more humans to be
involved will also decouple it from the numerical limits imposed by natural
reproduction. The risks of doing that are immense and far more impactful to
our species than eliminating the "oppression" of women.

~~~
ArtWomb
>>> heavily regulate and restrict

I appreciate the point, Accujack (and so elegantly argued)

You are wise enough to foresee the perils. So you certainly possess wisdom
enough to predict all counter-arguments

There is little political or moral will extant today to stop a tyrant from
enacting any such doomsday scenario with unlimited white slavery and surrogacy
and pavlovian indoctrination

Truly, if democracy gives way to "technocracy". Hermit Kingdoms become the New
Normal. And such "repro tech" will indeed have contributed mightily to mass
misery and bondage

But discovery of this magnitude also ripples with improving after-effects.

The electric light bulb doesn't just provide light. It renders streets safe at
night. Extends hours for quiet contemplation. Projects films to magnify
collective dreams (and nightmares)

Leave it to the ethicists, then. The centers for study of existential risk. To
quantitatively assess whether on balance it should be abandoned or merely
postponed

I for one remain eager for a dawning age of "Open Source WetWare" ;)

