The Blurring of Boundaries in Bioscientific Discourse

Abstract

Today artificial intelligence is being used experimentally to predict embryo viability. Some research teams have been also looking into the idea of the automation and robotization of other procedures that are frequently used in assisted reproduction. For a long time, other groups of researchers have been working on biotechnological devices that could ensure ectogenic gestation (ectogenesis). It is therefore imaginable that a synergistic combination of these and other reproductive technologies could one day lead to a complex procedure that would enable fully automated external human reproduction (herein referred to as robogenesis). This chapter aims to introduce the basic conceptual and ontological aspects of robogenesis. The first part is dedicated to defining robogenesis and situating it within the third wave of the reproductive revolution. The second part focuses on the analysis of theoretical, technological, and narrative assumptions about robogenesis. The final part presents arguments in favour of practising robogenesis. I will argue that a complete automation of human reproduction may be acceptable from the perspectives of humanism, transhumanism, and posthumanism, albeit for diametrically different ontological reasons.