Paper short abstract:

This paper will discuss the ethical implications of artificial amnion and placenta technology (AAPT) on the issue of abortion rights.

Paper long abstract:

Artificial amnion and placenta technology (AAPT), commonly called ‘artificial womb technology’, is viewed as the most promising pathway to improve the health and life prospects of pre-term infants, given that neonatal care as it stands is associated with significant morbidity and long-term damage. The notion that a neonate might complete gestation in an artificial placenta is known as ‘partial ectogestation’. The long-term hope is that AAPT will be able to sustain ‘neonates’ even earlier than our current standard of viability (>22~24 weeks) to replace the palliative care that is usually recommended for neonates below viability. This theoretical possibility has prompted some to suggest that ectogestation might resolve the issue of abortion, or at least provide an alternative to it.

Yet, renegotiating what is implied for abortion rights due to the advent of AAPT is a complex issue. Because most pro-choice arguments for abortion are premised on bodily choice and autonomy, questions about choosing whether the fetus should continue to develop independently of the human body at such early stages of development have not yet had to be invoked. The possibility of continued ‘life’ for the fetus at any state of its development will, I argue, generate fresh justificatory schemes that might compete with the pro-choice model for the justification of abortion. As such, it is imperative to articulate also what reasons there may be in this scenario to justify the ‘death’ of the fetus.