Eve: The Disobedient Future of Birth

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. (Nov.)