Home Random Page


CATEGORIES:

BiologyChemistryConstructionCultureEcologyEconomyElectronicsFinanceGeographyHistoryInformaticsLawMathematicsMechanicsMedicineOtherPedagogyPhilosophyPhysicsPolicyPsychologySociologySportTourism






But we have to procreate—we have to have children —how can biological hereditarianism and specialization ever phase out?

The loosening up of social ties and the development of new reproductive technologies are enabling more and more people to share not only in parenting—but also in the more basic act of procreation itself.

Tens of thousands of babies are now born every year through asexual insemination—inovulation—in vitro fertilization—adoptive pregnancies.

The words mother—father—parents are taking on new meanings. New methods of reproduction—"high-tech coupling" means that there are often several mothers and fathers involved in each birth: two (and soon more) genetie parents—one gestational mother—and one or two or more rearing parents.

In the coming years reproductive technologies will grow more so­phisticated allowing us undreamed-of biological versatility (nonspe-cialization). We will have in vitro gestation and therefore bypass the need for even a gestational mother. The entire act of procreation from fertilization through delivery will take place outside the body.

We will also carry out "mosaic births"—combining different traits from several donor sperm and ova. (This is already done with cattle to produce desirable traits.) The hybrid baby will have not two but many biological parents.

These and other collaborative reproduction procedures will help us at last move beyond biological hereditarianism and specialization. "My own child" and "my own parents" will have less and less meaning. As in many insemination and adoptive births today—more and more

people will not know who their biological parent or parents are. It won't

matter to them. People will have many mothers and fathers.

In the coming years biological hereditarianism will be as unacceptable

as political hereditarianism is today.


Date: 2015-02-28; view: 710


<== previous page | next page ==>
Isn't the decline of the (nuclear) family disastrous for society? | Is our planet in fact more despoiled and polluted than ever?
doclecture.net - lectures - 2014-2024 year. Copyright infringement or personal data (0.007 sec.)