Series: YU Student Medical Ethics Society

Venue: YU Wilf Campus YU Wilf Campus

Halacha:

Family & Ishut,  Medical Ethics 

Description

The possibility of a baby developing in a bag seems like something straight out of a futuristic novel, yet the emerging field of ectogenesis seeks to do just this: provide the possibility of a fetus to develop outside the mother’s womb. This technology has tremendous medical relevance for women who cannot carry a fetus to term, yet it also begs serious social and ethical questions: what does it mean for a fetus to never have a physical connection with the mother’s womb? How will this affect the social enterprise of childbearing and child-raising? Does a mother’s legal status now change and how does this relate to traditional parent-child relationships?