Eugenic Utopia or Postmodern Peril? A Discussion of the Ethics of Reproductive Technology
type: CreativeWork
description: This essay analyzes the ethical questions raised by those who use surrogacy, fertility drugs, and/or various laboratory procedures in order to bear children. The overriding theme is the part that selfish, indifferent individualism characteristic of a present-day liberal democracy plays in guiding people's use of these technological interventions. Such individualism often blinds people to the effects their choices have not only on their children but also their surrounding communities. The use of fertility drugs and other technological interventions has resulted in an unusually large number of multiple births. In their desperation, parents choose to ignore the myriad of health effects children of multiple births will likely suffer, as well as the unfair economic pressure placed upon the surrounding communities to sustain what would otherwise be an unsustainable situation. In comparing surrogacy today to the vision portrayed by Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale, this essay points out that we are potentially headed toward a more divisive, sexist, and litigious society in which children produced via surrogacy, as well as the surrogates themselves, become more and more objectified, if not rejected altogether.
abstract: This essay analyzes the ethical questions raised by those who use surrogacy, fertility drugs, and/or various laboratory procedures in order to bear children. The overriding theme is the part that selfish, indifferent individualism characteristic of a present-day liberal democracy plays in guiding people's use of these technological interventions. Such individualism often blinds people to the effects their choices have not only on their children but also their surrounding communities. The use of fertility drugs and other technological interventions has resulted in an unusually large number of multiple births. In their desperation, parents choose to ignore the myriad of health effects children of multiple births will likely suffer, as well as the unfair economic pressure placed upon the surrounding communities to sustain what would otherwise be an unsustainable situation. In comparing surrogacy today to the vision portrayed by Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale, this essay points out that we are potentially headed toward a more divisive, sexist, and litigious society in which children produced via surrogacy, as well as the surrogates themselves, become more and more objectified, if not rejected altogether.
author: Hedges, Anne
keywords: Eugenics, Reproduction, Arts and Humanities
date published: 2002-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:05:51Z
provider: Dominican University of California
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Dominican University of California