Why Ectogestation Is Unlikely to Transform the Abortion Debate: a Discussion of ‘Ectogestation and the Problem of Abortion’

Abstract

In this commentary, I will consider the implications of the argument made by Christopher Stratman (2020) in ‘Ectogestation and the Problem of Abortion’. Clearly, the possibility of ectogestation will have some effect on the ethical debate on abortion. However, I have become increasingly sceptical that the possibility of ectogestation will transform the problem of abortion. Here, I outline some of my reasons to justify this scepticism. First, I argue that virtually everything we already know about unintended pregnancies, abortion and adoption does not prima facie support the assumption that a large shift to ectogestation would occur. Moreover, if ectogestation does not lead to significant restrictions to abortion, then there will be no radical transformation of the practice of abortion. Second, abortion is already associated with stigma, and so the presence of ectogestation would need to create additional stigma to modify behaviour. Finally, I argue that ectogestation shifts the debate away from the foetus to the human subject of the artificial womb—the gestateling, therefore creating a new category of killing—gestaticide. However, this would only reorient the debate rather than end it.

Regulating abortion after ectogestation

“…For instance, Daniel Rodger claims that ectogestation is unlikely to radically transform the abortion debate if ectogestation poses a risk to the mother or to the fetus. 25 Whether this objection is successful depends at least partly on the details of the yet future technology. It is unlikely that transferring the fetus to an artificial womb is risk-free.…”

“…Someone might object to my arguments by claiming that requiring the pregnant woman to use ectogestation either violates her autonomy and/or poses a significant risk to her or to the fetus—thus changing nothing. For instance, Rodger claims that ectogestation is unlikely to radically transform the abortion debate if ectogestation poses a risk to the mother or to the fetus 25…”

Partial ectogestation and the right to choose the method by which one ends one's pregnancy

“…2 2 It has been argued that this technology will have little impact on the abortion debate (Rodger, 2021). In my article, I primarily focus on moral rights, something Rodger does not address at great length in the 2020 paper. …”