Queenemuse wrote:
Why the sacred cow?I think artificial wombs *might* make having babies much
less of an ordeal,and a large percentage of women would opt for it, if only
avoid pain, and topreserve their bodys elastins... er um... vanity...plus
making it possible for people to have babies that previously could
not!Almost every sci-fi novel I've read about bio-tech has an artificial
wombscenario.Apart from allowing women to relax a little, it also changes
the nature ofbreeding and sex. Sex itself not being the act of conception,
it loses or gains momentum?
(end of reproduction)
The artificial womb would be the dream of most career women. Combine that
with affordable childcare (perhaps made possible by robotic nannies) and you
have women leaping for joy. My own mother likes to routinely tell my
brother and I about all the suffering she went through to bring us into the
world! But I think it would go from being seen as miracle machine to a
gizmo for busy yuppie women and then to being just commonplace.
I have read that the infant is to an extent learning or imprinting while in
the womb from his or her mother's voice. Couldn't an artificial womb really
interfere with this process? I'm not sure if tape recordings could be an
adequate substitute. Perhaps a future child psychologist will write "this
new breed of child looks at us with frightening and unfeeling eyes that one
day could wreak unknown chaos upon us!"
The nature of sex is going to change with such things as artificial wombs,
in vitro genegineering, failproof birth-control, cheap robot nannies and
elimination of STD's. It may take longer for hedonic engineering to enter
the picture due to social mores. I would like to see posts addressing how a
combination of these factors will affect human mating and family patterns.
Perhaps some of the sacredness attached to the sex act will be lost when the
artificial womb is common. But in that era for a woman to choose nature's
option may make her seen as truly astonishing and impressive. Nature may
not be so taken for granted then.
best regards,
John Grigg
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