Paper short abstract:

Technological innovations in reproductive biology have altered patterns of human senescence, the planning of reproductive careers, and reproductive identity. Documenting these innovations, the promises, and the outcomes may assist in developing a critical awareness for evaluating current and future technologies.

Paper long abstract:

The invention of assisted reproductive technologies, including IVF, has altered the patterns of fertility related to chronological age, which until 40 years ago were immutable. This has contributed to a shifting in the age of first birth to over 30 years of age, some extension of reproductive years into the 40’s, and an overall compression of reproductive careers within the lifespan of a given woman such that as few as 2 of her 80+ years are spent in child bearing at what historically was an advanced maternal age. The use of donor eggs and embryos enables women into their 60’s to bear their own children, those of their children, or embryos conceived by others. This has challenged the perceived normality of aging, senescence, and the relative age relationships of parent and child with regards to caring, as the frequency of young people caring for aged parents increases. For children born as a result of donor gametes or embryos, there can be a foreshortening of biological histories as biological parentage may be unknown. For children born after cryopreservation of gametes or embryos, they may perceive themselves as having lived a suspended existence relative to siblings and parents; and for parents, the frozen embryos take on a suspended personhood unlike a natural conception where time moves at the same pace for all events. Finally, reproductive technologies provides a window of observation on the millions of individual gametes that represent a multitude of possible futures subject to selection. Each child becomes the product of a deliberate act, their life trajectory set by selection of possible futures.