Is pregnancy barbaric?

[mindstalk]

Thread at Feministe, on comments by radical feminist Shulamith Firestone in 1970. Comments spend a fair amount of time discussing Bujold, which warms my heart. One poster wonders if one's gut reaction toward uterine replicators (Bujold) or exowombs (Transhuman Space) is governed by prior exposure to Brave New World vs. Bujold.

Comments

[mlc23.livejournal.com]

Presumably the wide use of exowombs would mean the end of breastfeeding and associated health benefits since induced lactation ( so far) is rarely completely successful and skips the very early and critical colostrum producing phase.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

That's a valid concern. OTOH, technology which was capable of building/growing a no-drawbacks exowomb might well have something more advanced to say about either induced lactation or 'synthetic' milk. If you can support a placenta in a machine, maybe you can grow mammary glands with immune backup, with the requisite hormonal manipulation.

This is mature biotech territory, but yeah...

(One of my problems with the Bujold books is how anyone with access to full medicine manages to die. They're demonstrated as being capable of replacing or growing any individual body part, as well as risky brain transplants to full clone bodies.)

[mlc23.livejournal.com]

Or we could have a wet-nurse revival if exo-womb techonology develops before milk substitute is developed. I can envision a scenario where having a lactating nanny would become a status symbol.