In a world seeking greater liberty and freedom, gestation within the body of a woman has become a subject of debate, and liberation from it is being adjudged a form of liberation from Eve’s curse. While this is considered a battle to be won to achieve women’s emancipation by some, many others see it as a hinderance to women’s realisation and fulfilment. The invention of an ectogestational device, which we will refer to as the artificial womb (AW) and use interchangeably with ectogenesis, has been purported the game changer for those who seek emancipation from the burden of motherhood. Without equivocation, it can be said that, up until now, all humans that have ever existed are of women born. They share the fact of gestation by a woman. Motherhood, seen from this, is a single thread holding humanity together. The reality of gestation in the womb creates fetal-maternal bond and carries with it a generational mark, evidence of a life tied to another in the process of development, nurture and survival. This mark, occasioned by the umbilical cord which connects the embryo and the mother, known as the navel, witnesses to a relationship that predates the time of reasoning and conscious awareness of every human. The gestational imprint which every existing human person carries speaks to their humble beginning in the maternal womb and of the dependent nature of the human embryo on the older species for life and sustenance. Not particular to humans alone, the navel is a hallmark of mammals, reminding of the period of gestation and the journey made by babies in the secret recess of their mother’s womb.
But for how much longer can this remain a mark of an intergenerational link among humans? Though not yet hatched in real time, the news of a possible AW invention makes this research question pertinent. The situation may not be different in Africa, where motherhood and child bearing is greatly valued. Will this spell the end of motherhood, most especially in Africa? Are children’s gestation to be trusted to a mechanical device? What implications will this have for family life and the future of human procreation? These, among other questions, beg for answers and call us to reflection in this article.
Motherhood
Motherhood is a common experience to every human that is and that ever was. Not in the sense of being a mother or of having borne a child, but in the sense of having experienced life through a mother in an intimate manner that none can fully explain because each experience of motherhood is unique and no two pregnancies are the same, as Alina Himes (2024) notes. Gestation, like motherhood, is a common denominator for all humans. Hannah Arendt, in The Human Condition, puts it aptly, saying that natality or being born is “the most general condition of human existence.”[1] No single person can come to life without the help of parents, especially the mother that bears new life within herself, nurtures it to viability and brings him forth as another creature in the image and likeness of God, crafted by His Almighty hand (cf. Gen 1:27). Whether this mothering experience will be same for future humans will only be best answered by the passage of time. John Paull II teaches that giving birth and nurturing new life is one of the distinguishing elements of the feminine gender, who is able to open up to new life or another person (Mulieries Dignitatem, n. 18) because she is so endowed as such from the very beginning of life. She possesses what it takes to be the bearer of life, bringing forth to bless the human family. Again, he affirms, in a General Audience (1979), that motherhood is woman’s vocation, one that is both eternal and contemporary in character. To a very large extent, motherhood defines or characterises womanhood such that the identity of a woman rests on her ability to conceive, gestate and bear her own children. This does not imply, however, that motherhood confers womanhood, since women do not necessarily have to give birth before becoming women.
African Perspective of Motherhood
The African perspective on motherhood goes beyond birthing, even though birthing is central to it. Motherhood, in this context, is conceived as deeply spiritual, communal and sacred as Ifi Amadiume (1987) notes. It gives identity to a woman, confers responsibility and care, and defines her social standing within the society. Dominica Dipio (2019) puts it succinctly when she says, in Africa, the expected destiny of every female is to become a mother. The multiplication of clan and the continuation of species, she adds, depends on her stock. Purissima E. Egbekpalu (2022) notes that to be married and to be blessed with children brings a deep sense of satisfaction and fulfilment to an African woman. The African mother is everything to her home: mother, teacher, councillor, nanny, cook, worker, and economic backbone. She is always and everywhere ready to sacrifice for the good of her family and is prepared to weather the storm for their survival. The matrescence transformation which a woman goes through when she becomes a mother, H. Connor (2023) opines, fine-tunes her body and mind to be able to care for her baby and serve its interest timely. She sees children as blessings from the Lord and she is open to welcoming them. Bearing children is a task the African woman is ready to undertake because it assures her stability in her home and earns her the respect of her husband’s family. She is seen as carrier of blessing and a consolation to her household. In Africa, therefore, the mother is highly respected and revered, and her fruitfulness makes her an ideal symbol of fertility and blessing.
Fertility, Pregnancy and Birthing
To know that one is not barren is a huge consolation because barrenness, like bereavement, is unreasonable to imagine, difficult to accept and humbling to live with. It is a devastating experience that makes the infertile look like a failure, especially when looked down upon. It is even seen as shameful and a cause of ridicule. Pregnancy, on the other hand, is a sign of blessing and fruitfulness, and the pregnant woman is accorded respect and treated with care by family, friends and the society. The ability to conceive and give birth is, therefore, a significant part of marriage in Africa, without which it is considered incomplete or unfulfilling. The lack of children in a home is a matter of major concern for an African couple and their families. They could go to any length to seek solution, making offerings and sacrifices and requesting the assistance of gods and deities, and where such were to fail, the taking of a second wife is often proposed as an alternative to the man, since the women are the ones often associated with the problem of infertility until otherwise proven. Barren homes are often laden with tensions and spouses left unhappy. Child bearing is a profound desire of every couple in an African family setting. It commands a sense of respect and strength, and gives a sense of pride, especially to men, who by it tend to make a statement that they are “man enough.”
The Feminists Challenge
Haldane (Daedalus, 1995) proposed the possibility of egg fertilisation outside the womb and the invention of ectogenesis as the perfect example of how science could bring about radical social change: by freeing women from the necessity of pregnancy and uncoupling sex and reproduction. Shulamith Firestone (1970) sees ectogenesis as a weapon with which to dismantle patriarchy and free women from patriarchal oppression locked in motherhood. She claims that mothering is a barrier to women’s self fulfilment, and that biological motherhood lies at the heart of women’s oppression. Hence, women needed to be freed from the “tyranny of reproductive biology.” She argues that “pregnancy is barbaric, and natural childbirth is at best necessary and tolerable and at worst it is like the shitting of a pumpkin.”[2] Kathryn MacKay (2020), in similar fashion, traces gender-based oppression to women’s biology and proposes that ectogenesis will be liberating for women and become a way of ending gender-based oppression. Cavaliere summarises feminists’ arguments in favour of ectogenesis into two categories: “equality-promoting potential” and “freedom-promoting potential” (G. Cavaliere, 2020). While not denying patriarchal influence on the understanding of motherhood, Adrienne Rich (1986), on the other hand, sorts to differentiate between institutional motherhood and motherhood as experience of women[3]. Her argument, which has been backed by other feminists, holds that it was the patriarchal notion of motherhood, not the actual experience, that was the source of women’s oppression and that needs to be fixed. Eden Paul (1930) considers gestation as “a period during which family life is essential, both for mother and for child.” He rejected ectogenesis, holding that no sexual reformer would wish that women be freed from the slavery of child-bearing or that our offspring might come into the world out of a broken eggshell. “Inter faeces et urinam nascimur.”[4]
The Challenge of the Artificial Womb
The major challenge of the AW involving full gestation is that it threatens to substitute women in their vocation to gestate and bear children. Elizabeth Romanis et al (2020) argues that “pregnancy is a task performed by the womb and female body in sustaining gestation. An AW, she says, may be an alternative form of the process of gestation, but it is not an alternative womb or pregnancy.” By this, she noted that one does not get pregnant with ectogenesis since pregnancy is a human function strictly reserved to the female body. Pregnancy is not the property of a non-living thing and, therefore, cannot be properly ascribed to it. This position corroborates the teaching of Donum vitae, which holds that in his unique and unrepeatable origin, the child must be respected and recognized as equal in personal dignity to those who give him life. It further teaches that “the child to be conceived and carried in the womb” is a fundamental human right (Donum Vitae, II, 1). Complete gestation in an AW will be a disservice to mothers and disrespectful to the dignity of the human person subjected to it.
Conclusion
Motherhood is knitted to the essence of being a woman and enables her fulfilment of the pro-creational responsibility willed by God from the beginning of creation. An attempt to separate pregnancy from motherhood would fragment the noble value of the vocation to motherhood and make it susceptible to myriads of manipulations. In fact, Robyn Rowland (1984) asked in this respect: “What role is envisioned for women” in a world where women’s “last power” is taken? This resonates John Paul II’s (Catechesis, 1980) teaching that: “The woman stands before the man as a mother, the subject of the new human life that is conceived and develops in her, and from her is born into the world.” One could conclude that if ectogenesis replaces natural womb and technology replaces motherhood, children would eventually also be grown in the laboratories of the Brave New World which Aldous Huxley warns about. The function of the womb is a “total package”. It begins with conception and ends at delivery but not without stimulating necessary hormones in the maternal body to continue the work already set in motion by the fact of pregnancy, that is, the post- natal care. Motherhood does not stop at the delivery of a baby, which may be the end point of an AW gestation, it continues for much longer because the human species remains dependent on maternal care after birth. This therefore, shows that childbearing cannot be separated from motherhood. While it is ethically permissible, when medical intervention is necessary in child’s birth, ectogenesis cannot replace natural womb and technology cannot replace motherhood.
References
Amadiume, Ifi. Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender as Sex in African Society. London: ZED Books, 1987.
Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Donum Vitae, Instruction on Respect for Human life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation. February 02, 1987. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20081208_dignitas-personae_en.html
Connor, H. “4 Ways Feminism Misunderstands Motherhood”. TGC Women’s News Letter. November 23, 2022. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/feminism-misunderstands- motherhood/
Dipio, Dominica. “African Motherhood Proverbs and Worldviews: A Matriarchal Perspective”, Legon Journal of Humanities. Volume 30. No. 1 (2019): 3-23. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48816163
Egbekpalu, Purissima E. “The Nobility and Sacredness of Motherhood: African Existential Perspective”. Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development. Volume 5. No. 1 (2022): 158-174. https://www.apas.africa/journal/JASSD_5_1_11.pdf
Hines, Alina. “Why every Pregnancy experience is unique: How two Pregnancies can vary significantly”, Sunchild. February 10, 2024. https://shunchild.com/article/can-two-pregnancies-be-completely-different
John Paul II. “The Mystery of Woman is revealed in Motherhood”. Catechesis in General Audience, Vatican City, March 12, 1980. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1980/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_19800312.html
John Paul II. Address on “Upholding the Dignity of Motherhood”, General Audience, Vatican City, January 10, 1979. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1979/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_19790110.html
Mackay K. “The ‘Tyranny of Reproduction’: Could Ectogenesis further Women’s Liberation? Bioethics. Volume 34(2020) 346–353. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12706
Rich, A. Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. New York: Norton, 1976.
Romanis, E. C. et al. “Reviewing the Womb”. Journal of Medical Ethics Volume 47. No. 12 (2020) 1-10. https://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2020/07/28/medethics-2020-106160
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[1] H. ARENDT, The Human Condition, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1998, 8.
[2] S. FIRESTONE, The Dialectic of Sex: The case for Feminist Revolution, William Morrow and Company, New York 1970, 92.
[3] Her actual differentiation was between motherhood and mothering which is rather unclear.
[4] E. Paul, Chronos, or the Future of the Family, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co Ltd, London 1930, 34-35.