Eve
The Disobedient Future of Birth
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- £7.49
Publisher Description
SELECTED AS A NEW SCIENTIST 'BOOKS TO EXPAND YOUR MIND'
'THOUGHTFUL ... EXAMINES THE BOUNDARIES OF MOTHERHOOD THROUGH AN UNUSUAL LENS: ARTIFICIAL WOMBS. ... A SKILLED WRITER WITH A CAREFUL GRASP OF HER SUBJECT AND ITS FASCINATING HISTORY' Angela Saini, Telegraph
'AN ENGROSSING INSIGHT INTO THE FUTURE OF BIRTH THROUGH THE LENSES OF THE MOST PRESSING WOMEN'S HEALTH ISSUES OF OUR ERA' New Statesman
Throughout human history, every single one of us has been born from a person. So far. But that is about to change.
Scientific research is on the cusp of being able to grow babies outside human bodies, from machines, for the very first time. Claire Horn takes us on a truly radical and urgent deep dive into the most challenging and pertinent questions of our age. Could artificial wombs allow women to redistribute the work of gestating? How do we protect reproductive and abortion rights? And who exactly gets access to this technology, in our vastly unequal world?
In this interrogative and fascinating story of modern birth, Eve imagines with eye-opening clarity what all this might mean for the future of humanity.
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Health law scholar Horn debuts with an enlightening study on the ethics of medical reproductive assistance, mainly the incubation of premature babies and in vitro fertilization. Tracing the history of these advancements in science alongside ethical responses to them, she writes that, from their inception, the incubator (invented in the 1880s) and in vitro fertilization (achieved in the 1970s) were surrounded by debate. Horn shows that proponents have consistently been divided between liberatory feminists who seek to limit the physical burden placed on mothers and eugenicists hoping that utopian advancements in childbirth will lead to the elimination of "undesirable traits." In 2017, researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia accomplished the first successful animal trial of a partial artificial womb, sparking a new round of debate about the future of childbirth. While Horn believes the science of birth should continue to be studied, she cautions that the feminist argument in favor of artificial wombs is "positing a technological solution to a social problem," one that casts women's bodies as the problem, when in reality many of the indignities of childbirth stem from insufficient medical care and childcare support for new parents. Horn's wide-ranging survey is a smart synthesis of many strands of politics and history.
