Reproductive & Genetic Technologies

Introduction: 

The birth of Louise Brown, the world’s first 'test-tube baby', occurred on 25 July 1978 in Oldham, northwest England, and homo technicans – our tecnology obsessed species -  has never looked back. The in vitro fertilization that made Louise possible has been joined by dozens of additional procedures that take reproduction out of the human body and involve more than two people plus medical staff – all in an effort, ostensibly, to overcome growing infertility in humans – thanks largely to the adverse impact of everyday chemicals.  But this noble – on the face of it – intention justifying this powerful technology has been belied, as with other very powerful technologies, by a number of unintended – yet fully foreseeable – consequences. Today, forty-five years on, and especially in the less affluent regions of the world (India, Russia) there is a virtual industry of poor women whose gestational capacities and the babies these produce are sold by baby brokers to affluent families. We now await the 'perfection' of the artificial womb.

As early as the late 1980s, accelerating to the present, these reproductive technologies have been joined by ever more powerful technologies of genetic modification (‘germline,’) aimed at manipulating the genetic properties of embryos and thus, eventually children and adults, in humans and animals. Once again, these genetic technologies have been presented, ostensibly, to address problems in the health of human children, but in fact, are used for sex selection (guess which sex wins?) and trait manipulation to suit the will and choice of scientists, physicians and parents.

Today, the frightening contours of a Brave New World of negative repro and genetic tech consequences are visible alongside any positives to anyone who cares to look. Yet the fact that by far the most effective ways to address infertility and infant disability is by improving environmental, socio-economic and medical conditions for mothers has more or less disappeared from view and discussion.  In the late 1980s and through the 1990s, writing as part of a movement of critical scientists, feminists, sociologists, environmentalists and ethicists, Varda called out these developments and potential consequences with prescience and passion. Some of her work is offered here.